Saturday, January 17, 2009

Amid slumping economy,subdivision adds cheaper homes


A sign of the times.
Decatur has always been like this, small bungalow's with big new homes built right next door. to me it's no big deal who wants to have every house to look alike, not me.
What I would like to see are new homes built like the 1940's and 50's bungalow's like the ones below.



BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com
Sign for the Hays Farm subdivision advertise two different house price points.


By DAN CHAPMAN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The for-sale signs at the entrance to Hays Farm offer the first clues that not all went as planned at the subdivision alongside Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

The older, more weathered sign reads, “new homes … high $500s.”
The newer, shinier sign reads, “distinctive homes … from the low $300s.”

Two price ranges. Two sets of home buyers.

And one big headache for original homeowners who paid more for their homes only to see the newer, cheaper homes lower their property values. Many of these owners can’t refinance because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. And they can forget trying to sell them — they’d lose tens of thousands of dollars on homes now assessed at much lower values.

Homeowners point many fingers: at a bankrupt builder; a financially challenged developer; skittish bankers; an over-built, over-priced West Cobb housing market; and a lousy economy that’s ravaging the real-estate industry.

The Hays Farm saga, a rarity in Metro Atlanta, mimics two-tiered subdivision troubles more common in the over-heated housing markets of California, Nevada and Florida.

Full story

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