Peachtree Place Condominiums offers the Buckhead lifestyle at an incredibly affordable price. With one and town bedroom condo priced at almost half of new construction competition, buyers can pick up great property, in a great area, at an unbelievable price. The location of Peachtree Place cannot be matched in that it is 1 mile from Lenox, Phipps, and all the other great shopping and restaurants in Buckhead. It is also less than a mile from the happening Brookhaven area that has it’s own area of stylish shops and dining. Also, right up the road is Semblers $600 million dollar Town Brookhaven development. With great access to all these ammenities and quick access to GA 400 and 85, wise buyers will see the great value in Peachtree Place.

These are some very powerful statistics about Atlanta. The source is the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. This is without a doubt one of the best places nationally to be right now in terms of jobs, real estate stability, and quality of life. The Metro Atlanta economy has been strong, despite a slow national period:

* Atlanta is 9th largest MSA in the nation with 5,138,200 population

* The metro adds aprox. 150,000 people per year

* Population growth is largest in nation with 20% growth from 2000-2006

* Income growth continues to be higher than the national average

* Metro home to 43 colleges / universities and 9 technical colleges

* Nearly 140,000 businesses operate in the area

* Job growth of 60,000 jobs in 2006 (no # yet for 2007)

* #4 best place in the nation to invest in Real Estate (CNN Money 2007)

* #1 in the Nation as top City for Young Professionals (Forbes 2007)

* #1 in the Nation as Best Place to LIve for Retirees (AARP 2007)

* #1 Busiest Airport in Nation for 3rd year in a row

* #1 Best Cities for Married with Kids (Kiplinger 2007)

* #3rd Top Cities with Most Fortune 500 Headquarters (Fortune 2007)

* #1 Least Costly large City for Business in U.S. (KPMG 2006)

* #4 in Top Ten North American Cities of the Future (FDI 2007)

* #3rd America’s 50 Hottest Cities (Expansion Management 2006)

If you’re like most first-time home buyers, you’ve probably listened to friends’, family’s and coworkers’ advice, many of whom are encouraging you to buy a home. However, you may still wonder if buying a home is the right thing to do. Relax. Having reservations is normal. The more you know about why you should buy a home, the less scary the entire process will appear to you. Here are eight good reasons why you should buy a home.

Pride of Ownership

Pride of ownership is the number one reason why people yearn to own their home. It means you can paint the walls any color you desire, turn up the volume on your CD player, attach permanent fixtures and decorate your home according to your own taste. Home ownership gives you and your family a sense of stability and security. It’s making an investment in your future.

Appreciation

Although real estate moves in cycles, sometimes up, sometimes down, over the years, real estate has consistently appreciated. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight tracks the movements of single-family home values across the country. Its House Price Index breaks down the changes by region and metropolitan area. Many people view their home investment as a hedge against inflation.

Mortgage Interest Deductions

Home ownership is a superb tax shelter and our tax rates favor homeowners. As long as your mortgage balance is smaller than the price of your home, mortgage interest is fully deductible on your tax return. Interest is the largest component of your mortgage payment.

Property Tax Deductions

IRS Publication 530 contains tax information for first-time homebuyers. Real estate property taxes paid for a first home and a vacation home are fully deductible for income tax purposes. In California, the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 established the amount of assessed value after property changes hands and limited property tax increases to 2% per year or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

Capital Gain Exclusion

As long as you have lived in your home for two of the past five years, you can exclude up to $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a married couple of profit from capital gains. You do not have to buy a replacement home or move up. There is no age restriction, and the “over-55″ rule does not apply. You can exclude the above thresholds from taxes every 24 months, which means you could sell every two years and pocket your profit–subject to limitation–free from taxation.

Preferential Tax Treatment

If you receive more profit than the allowable exclusion upon sale of your home, that profit will be considered a capital asset as long as you owned your home for more than one year. Capital assets receive preferential tax treatment.

Mortgage Reduction Builds Equity

Each month, part of your monthly payment is applied to the principal balance of your loan, which reduces your obligation. The way amortization works, the principal portion of your principal and interest payment increases slightly every month. It is lowest on your first payment and highest on your last payment. On average, each $100,000 of a mortgage will reduce in balance the first year by about $500 in principal, bringing that balance at the end of your first 12 months to $99,500.

Equity Loans

Consumers who carry credit card balances cannot deduct the interest paid, which can cost as much as 18% to 22%. Equity loan interest is often much less and it is deductible. For many home owners, it makes sense to pay off this kind of debt with a home equity loan. Consumers can borrow against a home’s equity for a variety of reasons such as home improvement, college, medical or starting a new business. Some state laws restrict home equity loans.

The Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate by a quarter-percentage point recently to the lowest level in nearly two years. The move is designed to stimulate the economy and prevent a credit crunch from hurting consumer and business lending. Real estate sales should benefit from this.

Banks typically base their prime interest rate on this federal funds rate plus 3 percent, bringing the prime down to 7.25 percent. Lowering the prime rate tends to lower overall borrowing costs and encourage consumer and business spending.
 
Lowering the prime helps everyone making payments on loans that have an interest rate tied to prime, including many ARMs tied to the one year T-bill, most home equity loans, many business loans, and even some credit cards. In addition, by leaving more money in consumers’ wallets, the central bank hopes to encourage local banks to lend more money.

So how will Georgia real estate owners fare in 2008? There are favorable factors on the horizon for this new year:

> The cost of borrowing is still remarkably low, with 30-year fixed-rate loans for owner-occupants hovering around 6 percent, making this a great time to lock in a long-term loan. Interest rates tend to move up and down in cycles, and this home loan rate is very near the historical lows of 2003. And let’s face it —- the cost of borrowing is one of the prime drivers of real estate sales.

> Georgia has largely dodged the real estate meltdown that has hit Michigan, California, Florida and New Mexico. In fact, the economy here is strong and growing. We are adding jobs daily. And that’s another driver in real estate sales.
Our part of the United States has experienced much more stable growth and less of the speculative frenzy that drove up home prices wildly in some parts of the country. Remember that all real estate is local, and what’s happening in New Mexico is not relevant to what’s happening in your neighborhood. Many of those negative reports miss this point completely.

> Home prices in Georgia have not slipped, and, in fact, are still rising, though modestly. The average home in Georgia is worth more today than it was a year ago. As hard as it is to believe, your real estate is still a good investment and is likely to be worth more in the future.

> People still need a place to live, and they almost always prefer to live indoors.
With an additional 2 million to 3 million new residents projected to arrive in the Atlanta area over the next 20 years, we will need a lot more housing units than are currently available. And that new housing will cost more, not less. I am not suggesting a housing boom during 2008, but I am saying that demand is going to increase, and we will need new housing to meet that demand.

> This current market won’t last. The southeastern United States (even Florida) continues to attract new jobs and new residents. People are moving here to fill jobs, and other people are moving here for a sunny retirement.
In a recent study, the Realtors’ chief economist Lawrence Yun stated that he believes the worst part of the credit crunch has worked its way through the economy, and projected existing home sales in the United States to trend up in 2008.

He projects existing home sales to reach a total of 5.67 million for 2007, making last year the fifth highest on record. He looks for a total of 5.70 million homes sold in 2008, compared with the 6.48 million units sold in 2006. His prediction for new-home sales is slightly gloomier, stating that a recovery for this part of the market is unlikely before 2009. The new-home market traditionally makes up around 16 percent of all home sales annually.

These things tend to go in cycles, and when the current new-home inventory finally dries up, and the glut of foreclosures gets absorbed, demand will force prices higher in the years ahead. How high remains to be seen.

I am willing to go on record as predicting that 2008 will be seen as the year of the real estate turnaround in the Atlanta metro area. Home demand will be strongest in the detached single-family “under $300,000″ range, and sales will begin to pick up in spring, then improve through the remainder of the year

Ansley Park Historic District is an early 20th-century suburban residential district that was developed in four phases between 1904 and 1913. It is located north of downtown Atlanta and west of Piedmont Park, between Piedmont Avenue and Peachtree Street. Completed by 1930, the neighborhood encompasses approximately 275 acres and includes single-family residences, apartments, and a church. It features a curvilinear arrangement of streets, numerous parks, and a wide range of eclectic and period architectural styles.

Streets in the district are landscaped on either side like parkways. Carefully aligned curbs, smooth lawns, shrubs and trees border the streets through the Park. This streetscape blends with the landscaping of adjoining lots to create the appearance of a vast public park. The principal parks of the district are Winn Park and McClatchy Park. Both wind their ways through major parts of the suburb so that no residential lot is more than a 10-minute walk away. The Ansley Park golf course is situated along the banks of Clear Creek within the neighborhood.

Cabbagetown is a neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia located south of Inman Park, east of Oakland Cemetery, north of Grant Park and west of Reynoldstown. Today Cabbagetown is an area of tremendous growth sparked by an influx of artists in the 1980’s, including Panorama Ray who operated a photo gallery on the main drag, Carroll Street. Since his death in 1997, Carroll Street has become the home of some nice restaurants and makes a great people-watching spot. Beginning in 1996, the mill itself has been renovated into the nation’s largest residential loft community — the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts — which houses everyone from artists and musicians to business professionals. In April 1999 a 5-alarm fire severely damaged the east building which was still being renovated and several nearby homes were destroyed. The lofts still opened the following year.

The neighborhood’s main festival is the Cabbagetown Reunion, known colloquially by long time residents and displaced residents as “the vegetable”, which takes place in the summer. The Chomp and Stomp bluegrass and chili festival takes place in November.