Power Breakfast: Metro home prices fall, school cuts, Pepsi, Coke, Kia, Goldman

Metro Atlanta’s housing market still has a long way to go.

Declining prices of existing single-family homes across metro Atlanta have set a disturbing three-month trend, AJC reporter Michelle Shaw writes.

The median sale price for existing single-family homes fell 2 percent in March, to $113,600, when compared to the year before, according to a National Association of Realtors report released Thursday.

The decline is an improvement on the 10 percent year-over-year drop in prices seen in January and the 4 percent loss in February.

Though the median price for March did not fall as far as in the previous two months, the metro area could not afford to lose any ground while sales have been surging nationwide, Steve Palm, president of  SmartNumbers, told Shaw.

“We’ve got to make some major improvements and do it fast,” he said. “We need the April numbers to be really good so we can get a good start on the second quarter.”

Also in the AJC:

• Cobb schools to cut 734 jobs
• More jobs in metro Atlanta, but market still tight
• PepsiCo sees slight improvement in North America
• Twenty-five years since the New Coke blunder
• Beef sold in Georgia is recalled

In other media:

• Kia reports higher profits, sales
• Goldman probe turns to Buffett deal
• Obama makes case for financial reform
• Two mines show how safety varies widely
• For Web’s new wave, sharing details is the point

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