NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — With interest rates remaining high, you might be nervous about buying a home. However, WalletHub is reporting that Nashville is one of the best housing markets in 2023. And this month, median sales price in Greater Nashville went even higher.

In August 2022, the average 30-year fixed rate was 5.22%. Today, it’s climbed to around 7.61%. You might expect that higher rate would bring Middle Tennessee’s housing market to a halt. Not so fast, according to Amanda Peterson with the Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage.

“We haven’t. We haven’t seen it drop significantly like some other areas,” said Peterson. “There’s still a lot of jobs, there’s still a lot of people moving here. And so we are still seeing prices going up, and homes appraising for those higher prices.”

According to the new RE/MAX Housing Report, the median home sales price in Greater Nashville is $451,000. Some perspective—that’s up from June’s median sales price of $440,000, a 2.5% increase. 

Housing inventory is up 7.6% over last year, and based on Peterson’s real estate intel, it is new construction that’s helping to bring new homes online. She said buyers are looking along the Davidson County—Williamson County line, especially for families who want a new build near the city.

“You can still see the cityscape. You are very close to Williamson County, you are very close to downtown. You’re in actual new neighborhoods there. That area is really having an uptick.”

But these homes are selling fast. The average Greater Nashville home now sits on the market 31 days—last year it was 22 days.

“The intel on the seller’s market is that it is still relatively good for most sellers…when we saw last year two weeks was a long time last year for the most part. Now we are looking at sometimes two months.”

All eyes are on the Federal Reserve as it steers this ship over the coming months. However, Peterson said, if rates drop even a small amount, buyers will flood the market and drive up prices all over again.

“It is a race. You got all these people at the starting line, and they’re like, ‘Well, I’m a little nervous to buy right now. I know I’m going to have to buy in the next year, but I’m just going to wait. And then the interest rates drop even a half a point, and then like five of those people start going…I think if we go down into the fives, we’re definitely going to have a lot of folks running for housing.”