NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As temperatures drop, normally demand in the real estate market follows suit, taking a bit of a break during the holiday season.
This year, that’s not so much the case. In fact, if you’re in the position to buy or sell a home, realtors say the time is now.
Interest rates remain historically low, meaning it’s a great time to buy, and since buyers remain competitive, it’s also a great time to list.
Data for the month of October showed 4,047 home closings, according to figures provided by Greater Nashville Realtors. This figure indicates a 7% decrease from the 4,364 closings reported for the same period last year.
“For the last few months, we’ve been selling almost every home that came on the market in Williamson county. It’s over 95% of homes in the market, and in Davidson County, it’s close to 90. That’s way more than normal on average. In a good market, 70% of homes sell in the first market,” Steve Jolly said, President-Elect of Greater Nashville Realtors.
The average number of days on the market for a single-family home in October was 27 days, with 3,976 pending sales at the end of the month, compared to 3,819 at the same time last year.
Keep in mind, these houses go fast because inventory is still low.
“Houses are like everything else in our everyday world, there’s a shortage,” Bobby Hill said of Crye-Leike Realtors.
Inventory at the end of October was 5,260, down from 7,457 in October 2020. That includes residential, condominium, multi-family, farms and lots.
“Inventory is climbing a little bit, but not as fast as anyone would like,” Hill said. “The Mt. Juliet market is seeing about two months of supply, Hermitage is 1.5 months supply and Lebanon is edging up to 3 months’ supply, so we are seeing the inventory rise it’s just probably a little higher price range.”
| The median price for a residential single-family home was $429,900 and for a condominium, it was $295,990. This compares with last year’s median residential and condominium prices of $349,000 and $245,000 respectively. |
“That tells us the demand is still strong out there,” Jolly said, adding that if there ever a time for someone who needs to sell to jump into the market, the time is now. “It’s not necessarily a better time to sell, but normally this time of year people think that the winter is a time when home sales are at their lowest so they tend to think about selling in spring and summertime and that’s because demand normally drops off people get busy. There’s all kind of fall and winter activities, holidays, people forget about real estate for a while, but if you’ve been looking and have been unsuccessful that’s still in the back of your mind, so there are still very active buyers out there looking for homes to buy when they couldn’t buy all year long.”
“I had a listing in Smyrna at $340,000, with 61 showings and 19 offers,” Hill said.
It sounds intimidating, but Hill says prices on homes are only going to rise.
“Prices are up,” he said. They’re not going to come down, are items in the store coming down? The answer is no. They’re not, now’s the time to get in as soon as you can.”
The data collected represents nine Middle Tennessee counties: Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Maury, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson.
