Phil Hudson, Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta’s residential real estate market saw its strongest month of 2015 in June and best month-over-month performance since 2011. The number of homes sold in Atlanta rose by 15.8 percent in June, compared with June 2014. Previous month-over-month increases this year have been in the single digits, except when a late winter inventory surge led to a 12.9 percent increase in March, according to Beacham & Co. Realtors, citing local Multiple Listing Service data. There were 5,647 home sales in the five-county metro (Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett) last month, compared to 4,878 a year ago. Some June closings have yet to be reported to the MLS, so the numbers have room to go higher. Total dollar volume sold increased 241 percent to nearly $1.72 billion. Both homes sold and dollar volume sold figures include sales of single-family detached homes, condos and townhomes. The average home sales price remained strong, rising 7.2 percent from June a year ago. The average was $304,354 last month, compared to $283,908 a year ago. It was the second month in a row that the average was more than $300,000.

In Buckhead, the number of homes sold increased 11.8 percent in June. There were 218 home sales in Buckhead compared to 195 a year ago. The average sales price of single-family detached home sales in Buckhead climbed to what is believed to be a monthly record ($1,132,040) and was up 13 percent from a year ago ($1,001,894). Sales of Atlanta luxury properties were robust again in June, Beacham & Co. reported. There were 16 sales of $2 million or more last month compared to just 8 in June 2014. Of the 16 sales, all but two were in Buckhead. The average sales price last month was $2,591,188 compared to $2,383,000 in June 2014, or a difference of 8.7 percent.

SOURCE: Atlanta Business Chronicle, http://goo.gl/HLjofZ