NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A new report finds Nashville near the top of the list for newest and most modern homes for sale across the country.

Unfortunately, supply still isn’t meeting demand. From workforce limitations to high material costs and shipment delays, builders said they can’t build fast enough.

“Builders have a lot of confidence in our market right now,” said Kevin Wilson, Vice President of Greater Nashville Realtors.

He added they’re coming in as quickly as they can to build new product, “The problem is we can’t keep up with demand were seeing in market.”

Though Nashville hasn’t seen a real estate market quite like this one, with such low supply and high demand, Music City’s fast growth and the growing pains that come along with it isn’t super new.

Nashville saw a major spike in population growth after the year 2000, and those who relocated here needed somewhere to live.

Wilson said a lot of the demand was filled by new construction. “We have a rich history in Nashville of local government that was very pro-development and pro-business that’s done a really good job of recruiting businesses into the area, and I think that contributed to the growth spirt.”

The Vice President of Greater Nashville Realtors said it’s likely why Homes.com is ranking Nashville as third in the country for newest homes for sale, with 35.4% of listings being built in 2000 or later.

In addition, the real estate company also ranked Nashville as second in the country for cities with the most ‘modern’ homes, built since 2016, with 21% of the city’s listings made up of modern homes.

“All over the country, since 2008-2010 when we had financial crisis, what we’ve seen is a slower start to rebuilding new construction,” Wilson said. “We’re seeing that grow much faster in Nashville.”

Housing starts across the country dropped roughly 10%t to an annualized rate of 1.569 million in April 2021. That’s from last month’s near 15-year high of 1.733 million, likely due to rising cost of lumber, materials and difficulties finding workers, a new report from trading economics stated.

“Builders across the board are dealing with higher construction pricing as far as lumber. Then it goes beyond that with delays in receiving appliances and other products they need to build their developments,” Wilson said.

Here in Nashville, things aren’t looking so bad. So far this year, Metro codes has permitted 1,208 Single Family Residences. During the same period last year (January through May) Metro permitted 1,103 Single Family Homes.

Nashville is well on our way to building more homes, but Wilson admitted, it’s not enough.

“The prediction is in 2022, we’ll catch up to some of the inventory struggles we’re seeing right now in new construction inventory,” he said. “With limited supply there’s going to be higher demand and that’s going to increase our contract prices.”