Each time James Bristol thought about putting his Green Hills home on the market, something changed his mind.
In 2009, it was the housing slump and economic recession, when qualified buyers were scarce and home values were falling. In 2011, the still-soft housing market and the unexpected return of one of his grown children — and a grandchild — nixed any selling plans.
Now, though, Bristol is taking the plunge. He’s preparing to list his five-bedroom home after seeing the house next door sell in 30 days for the asking price.
“That told me it was a good time to sell because the market is getting stronger,” said Bristol, a Nashville attorney.
That’s a message Middle Tennessee real estate agents hope more homeowners hear and act upon, thus relieving an inventory squeeze that threatens to constrain the market’s momentum.
At the end of March, the latest period for which the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors has data available, there were 16,049 residential properties on the market — a 15.5 percent drop from a year earlier. At the same time, sales have soared by more than 30 percent.
Despite the resulting squeeze, price increases have been modest and have stayed in a fairly narrow range in the past year. The median sales price for a single-family house was $169,000 in March, just $500 higher than in the same month a year earlier. Condominiums have fared better, rising by nearly $13,000 in the past year.
The slow price appreciation is holding back would-be home sellers, especially those who bought during the housing market’s heyday and still have little or no equity, local agents say.
“Sellers are waiting for values to come back up more,” said Kendra Cooke of Cooke Realty Partners in Nashville.
There’s also a self-perpetuating Catch-22 of sorts going on: Potential sellers are waiting because they’re worried they won’t be able to find a new place to live because of the tight supply.
At the same time, many homeowners who tried to sell during the downturn — only to see their properties languish on the market for months or even more than year — are hesitant to try again just yet. They will remain tentative until they feel better about the economy, especially the job and housing markets, agents say.
“It all goes back to consumer confidence,” said Price Lechleiter, GNAR president and a broker with Fridrich & Clark Realty. “That’s the driver.”
A recent Metro property reappraisal provides little comfort. It said average home values in Nashville fell by nearly 1 percent from 2008 to 2012, with only a third of Metro’s 35 council districts seeing gains.
That has led some homeowners, especially in high-demand areas, to underestimate what their homes are worth in today’s market, agents say. Those areas include parts of East Nashville, 12South, West End, Sylvan Park, Bellevue and Belle Meade.
Those areas are largely built out, with little new construction, limiting the pool of houses. The reasons those areas are attractive to buyers also make them attractive to homeowners who are already there, further reducing turnover as homes go on the market less often, agents say.
Jennifer Core, who has lived in her Inglewood home for a dozen years, said her neighbors were there before her. When Core was the victim of a crime two years ago, those longtime neighbors pitched in to help her recover.
That’s why Core has no plans to sell her 67-year-old house despite receiving “several” inquiries to do so. “I’m not going to leave that kind of connection behind,” she said.
With more buyers than sellers coming to them, agents are ramping up efforts to recruit listings.
Richard Courtney of Christianson Patterson Courtney & Associates said he and partner Stephanie Tipton-Soper recently sent fliers urging homeowners to “take advantage” of the “hottest market in Nashville’s history.” About 3,000 went to previous clients, and 2,000 others were sent to homeowners in neighborhoods that are in demand, Courtney said.
“People who had listed five years ago, a lot of them are getting calls from Realtors saying, ‘Let’s try one more time,’ ” he said.
Bailie Rhea Hodges and Paul Sek of Hodges and Fooshee Realty also went the flier route, sending several hundred last week to homeowners in Nashville’s West End.
“Two years ago, it was extremely hard to find anyone who wanted to buy a house,” Hodges said. “Now it’s hard to find anyone who wants to sell.”
Nashville's 2012 rent price increase among nation's highest
Published January 3, 2013 by William Williams
Nashville and New York both saw rents rise 5.1 percent, placing the two cities tied for fifth in the ranking. Nationally and by comparison, rents for new leases in the U.S. apartment sector climbed 3 percent during 2012.
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