House statistics: slow sales for luxury market in North Fulton County

So you think you have it tough? There are currently 192 homes listed for sale in North Fulton County that are east of GA 400. Only one of them has gone under contract since December 16, 2008 according to the first Multiple Listing Service. That is not a slow market, that is a non-existent market.  At that pace it would take over 30 years to sell all of these homes. For comparisons sake, at this point in 2006 there had been 21 sales for homes listed above $800,000, 18 sales in 2007 and 14 last year as of this date in February.   So what is going on here? There have been big changes in the mortgage market that provides the jumbo loans usually necessary to finance these fine homes. Many lenders left this market and the ones that continue to serve this segment substantially increased the requirements necessary to obtain a loan. (usually a 25% minimum down payment) The interest rates also increased dramatically. The jumbo rate used to be only about 1/4 to 3/8 of a point higher that the conforming loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but now the spread has jumped almost two percentage points. I must also point out that the well to do in this country are currently being vilified by our government. They must feel like targets and I would not be surprised if some of them have pulled back and put off home purchases after hearing about the tax increases headed their way. After all, we can't have anyone attain financial success without proper punishment. Seriously, I want to thank the wealthy for paying a disproportionate share of funding for our bloated government. It is not fair to you but you are appreciated by more people than you know. Please excuse the political rant but I am a lover of the concept of freedom and limited government and today's political climate is sickening. I will keep an eye on this part of our real estate market and let you know when sales pick up. Keep your heads up, things can only get better from here.  All the best,  Jeff