NASHVILLE, Tenn, (WKRN) — The demand for housing in Nashville is only growing, with home sales accelerating to the fastest rate on record for the month of March, dropping inventory to nearly half from what it was last year.

It comes on the heels of a major jobs announcement from tech giant, Oracle, which has recently proposed bringing a whopping 8,500 jobs to the area, with a $1.2 billion investment. The new project, if approved, would be built on Nashville’s East Bank.

As housing demand grows and inventory drops, many are now questioning where these thousands of people would go.

“We don’t have places to put people right now,” said Maria Holland, an agent with RE/MAX Homes and Estates Lipman Group. “We’re going to need more builders because we can’t meet the demand.”

New RE/MAX data from their most recent National Housing Report shows the average Nashville area home sells in 19 days, while home sales are on a continuous include, rising nearly eight percent over the last year. Prices have grown around nine percent.

“You’ve got this national surge of moving and re-locating and Tennessee is getting so much of it and we don’t have enough housing,” Holland said, adding Oracles announcement means we can expect even more soon-to-be-Tennesseans.

“It’s just going to make Nashville expand,” she said.

“The demand for Nashville housing has never been greater, and the Oracle announcement should really put municipalities on notice,” Jeff Checko said, realtor and broker with the Ashton Real Estate Group. “They need to focus on preparing infrastructure and common sense zoning that adds rooftops without bureaucracy. Davidson County and Williamson County have fallen victim to excessive red tape and impact type fees, while places like Wilson County and Sumner County have had a common-sense approach. As a result, their tax bases will thrive in the coming few years, and others will lag behind.”

We’re told the campus would be roughly twice the scale of the Music City Center and five times the investment of Amazon at Nashville yards. That project prompted similar doubt about inventory in 2018 when councilman Steve Glover said, “we’re already short in so many areas in this city so can we take another 5,000 people? I don’t know the answer.”

If we want to be able to fit thousands of newcomers we have to act now, Holland says.

“We really need to plan for that residentially whether that be rentals or building housing,” Holland said, adding we will likely see major growth in East Nashville, Madison, Goodlettsville and Hendersonville if the deal passes.

“People forget there’s a ceiling and floor and I can’t find a ceiling right now and I don’t see it in sight, so I think it’s just going to continue,” Holland said.

Oracle officials say 2,500 jobs would come to fruition in 2027. The full 8,500 jobs would be in place by 2031. We can only hope, by then, the lack of inventory will be gone for good.

The proposal will first go to the Metro Industrial Development Board later this month. If approved, it heads to Metro Council.