High-End Homes Dominate Tennesee Housing Market
When it comes to unloading expensive, high-end homes, sellers in the Tennessee housing market don’t have it easy. There’s a large inventory of such properties.
“The problem we’ve got is we probably have 350 on the market right now,” said Bud George, the general manager for Bob Parks Realty, to The Daily News Journal. “Once you get over $300,000 in general, we’re selling more in that price than we’ve ever sold before, but we’ve just built many more than we’ve built before. We’ve over-supplied the market above $300,000 in Rutherford County.”
Realtors will sell more than 350 homes above $300,000 in 2006, topping the 246 in that price range last year. However, the remaining houses in that range represent about a one-year supply based on the rate of selling, said George, noting that Realtors consider a sixth-month supply to be a balanced market for both sellers and buyers.
Rutherford County has about a one-year supply of homes that cost $300,000 or more. This means that Tennessee mortgage applicants are in the fiscal driver’s seat because they can negotiate with sellers who must realize how many options buyers now have.
Those looking in this price range include David and Debbie Gafnea.
“We found one we liked,” said David, but another buyer bid on the desired home before they could purchase it.
The couple hopes to find a one-story home that doesn’t separate their bedroom location from their children, 8-year-old Amy and 3-year-old Jacob. The parents want a bonus playroom without multiple steps leading to it to make it easier to lug toys back to their places.
Their real estate agent, Joi Sherrill, is confident the family will find the right home.
“The market is strong,” Sherrill said. “Locally, we don’t have a bubble. Our sales prices average 96 to 98 percent of list prices. There’re lots of opportunities for buyers and sellers in this market.”
Although real estate professionals remain upbeat, rumors have spread about home builders turning in keys to the bank for unsold $300,000 houses because they can’t make payments.
Those stories are exaggerations, said Tad Craig, board president for the Middle Tennessee Association of Realtors.
“The upper-end market is the only thing that has slowed down,” said Craig, whose organization of 1,900 real estate professionals includes 986 representatives from Murfreesboro and 184 from Smyrna. “A year is longer than they want to see, but it’s not the end of the world.”
Those same higher-priced houses could sell within two months if a couple of large companies decide to relocate offices to this area, Craig said.
Murfreesboro’s Gateway development of offices, stores, restaurants and a future hospital off Medical Center Parkway could bring in the companies with higher-end buyers, he said.
Meanwhile, all other homes are selling well. There’s an abundance of Tennessee home loan activity.
“As quick as you can list it, you are getting calls, and you are getting showings,” added Craig, a Murfreesboro resident who works as a real estate auctioneer and mortgage broker for Shelbyville-based Craig & Wheeler Realty and Auction Co.