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are selling at list price or better.
Low interest rates are also
a factor in the market, Ailion
says.
“Many sellers are also buyers
and why not, with interest
rates in the mid-three percent
range, don’t just make the
trade on that old home, get rid
of that old 4%-plus mortgage,”
he said. “This is a great time to
lock in historically low interest
rate long term fixed-rate
financing.”
In the short to medium
term, Ailion expects the Cobb
market to remain strong and
interest rates to stay low, but
warns the market potentially
faces challenges associated
with trade and tariffs.
“There is a concern that
worldwide we are seeing an
economic slowdown,” he said.
“It appears there may be talk
of an additional tax cut, which
could stimulate the economy,
and possible additional
reductions in interest rates if
stimulus is necessary.”
In July 2019, Cobb had
1,314 new property listings
worth a combined $467 million
with an average price of
$479,858 or $150 per square
foot, according to the county’s
realtors association. Its
data shows there were 9,583
new property listings in the
county during the first half of
2019, worth a combined $3.5
billion, indicating a 13.7 percent
increase on the previous
corresponding period.
The market hotness index
by Realtor.com shows Smyrna
has the hottest zip code in the
county and the second hottest
in the wider metro area in real
estate terms, with Kennesaw
and Marietta zip codes in the
next spaces down respectively.
It would take less than two
months to exhaust Cobb’s
active listings at the current
sales rate, the association says,
with about 55 percent of the
county’s listings selling each
month.
Ailion says Cobb’s commercial
real estate market is in
good health, with the vacancy
rate dropping from 9.5 percent
to 7.5 percent between
the second quarters of 2016
and 2019. In that time, market
rent has increased from
$13.67 to $14.33 per square
meter overall.
“This represents close to a
5% increase in rental rates,”
Ailion said.
In the past year 667 commercial
properties were sold
in Cobb for a combined $2.9
billion. This included the
second and third largest office
property sales in the metro
area this year — Paces West
and 100 Galleria, Ailion said,
adding that construction
has also started on Edison
Chastain, a 150,000-squarefoot,
three-story office
building on Chastain Meadows
Parkway near Bells Ferry
Road in Kennesaw.
The Chastain development
is the first new “Class A” office
space built in the Town Center
in about 12 years, Ailion
says.
“This is all good news.
Apartments have been selling
at record prices, the growth
of online and distribution
business has benefited the
industrial markets, and
Cobb County has excellent
transportation access, low
taxes and a great environment
for employees that support
commercial investment and
operations.”
The Cobb County commercial
property digest shows the
latest year-on-year appraised
values are up 3.3 percent.
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