Well, lets get to the the bad news first. The first quarter report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency indicates that home prices declined 7.94% in the last 12 months in the Columbus and Phenix City metro area. This is the steepest drop in home prices since they started tracking it. Its also the second quarter in a row that this area has declined, as the 4th quarter of 2009 saw a decline of 3.34%. Apparently, the glut of foreclosures on the market is finally having an impact on value.
The good news is that it looks like the Fort Benning Base Re-alignment, known lovingly as BRAC by those of us in the Columbus area real estate market is really going to happen. Roughly 30,000 military and support personnel are going to be moving here later this year and will be completed by 2011. This should boost the real estate market considerably for this area later this year and on into 2012, assuming the rest of the economy doesn't tank....but thats another story.