Knoxville Housing Market Sluggish
Times are good if you’re buying a house in Knoxville, Tennessee … unless you have to sell one first, of course.
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Posted by Richard Barber on Aug 09 2007 under Tennessee
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Archive for the 'Tennessee' Category (Chronologically Listed)
Tennessee Mortgage Problems Increase in Chattanooga
The housing boom during early part of the decade ended in a bust for many homeowners. The dream turned into a nightmare, and late Tennessee mortgage payments resulted in foreclosure.
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Posted by Richard Barber on Jun 07 2007 under Tennessee
Tennessee Mortgage Activity Strong in Nashville
Local Realtors estimate Tennessee mortgage foreclosures in the Nashville area for April were 15 percent higher than they were the same month last year.
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Posted by Richard Barber on May 18 2007 under Tennessee
Tennessee Mortgage Demand Slows in April
April home sales in the Middle Tennessee housing market fell 7.6 percent from the same time period in 2006, according to a release from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.
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Posted by Jed Moss on May 13 2007 under Tennessee
Mortgage Company, Real Estate Agency Merge in Tennessee
Dennis and Kathleen Young have been a terrific team for years as husband and wife. Now they’ve formed a second union in business on Providence Boulevard, in Clarksville, Tenn.
Posted by Richard Barber on May 08 2007 under Tennessee
Middle Tennessee Mortgage Activity, Home Sales Slow in March
March home sales in the Middle Tennessee housing market tumbled 11 percent from the same time period in 2006, according to a release from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.
Posted by Jed Moss on Apr 11 2007 under Tennessee
Regional Economy Protects Against Bad Credit Tennessee Mortgages
In some areas of the country the subprime loan crisis has hit like a tsunami, but Middle Tennessee’s regional economy is like a flood wall shielding it from deep impact, local Tennessee mortgage lenders and real estate experts say.
It remains to be seen how the subprime issue will affect the long-term growth rate of the area’s residential real estate market.
In the meantime, high-interest, bad credit home loans are under scrutiny on a national level.
The unbridled availability of these loans created a froth around the fringes of the housing market, giving the impression that just about anyone could own a home, even if they had poor credit or lacked money for a down payment, says Scott Ractliffe, branch manager at Mortgage Investors Group in Brentwood.
“Everybody jumped into the homebuying process, consumers and lenders,” he says. “The [mortgage rates] weren’t great but the product was there.”
The good news for the Middle Tennessee housing market is that it’s a high-growth area, says Greater Nashville Area Association of Realtors President Richard Courtney.
“We have so many businesses relocating here. I think it’s a trend that’s going to continue,” Courtney says.
The state’s unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.9 percent in February compared to January, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. That rate is 0.1 percentage points higher than January but 0.2 points lower than the February 2006 rate.
Realtors and builders are optimistic that buyers who qualify for traditional home loans - the one’s making up 80-plus percent of the market - will continue to buy at a healthy pace.
“I think it will slow down a little, but I don’t think overall we’ll see a real downturn,” Courtney says.
Posted by Jed Moss on Apr 03 2007 under Tennessee
Attention, Tennessee Mortgage Seekers: Good and Bad News in Knoxville Housing Market
Spring is when many people put their homes on the market. But if you’re hesitant to buy or sell in Knoxville thanks to the Tennessee mortgage meltdown, there’s bad news and good news.
In general, the Knoxville housing market is doing well.
But this is the recent bad news: People with poor credit, who may have been approved several years ago, may not be able to get a loan now. There’s been a crackdown on bad credit home loan approval as foreclosure rates soar.
“It’s a very scary time,” says Loren Riddick, a loan officer with United Capital Mortgage.
Lately, he’s been working to help some of his clients manage their adjustable mortgage interest rates, but says “the problem is now is that those lending opportunities may not even be there.”
“They may find themselves in a situation where they have a 7 percent rate or 8 percent rate now and then in just a few months, they may be at 13 to 15 percent,” Riddick says of the problem many adjustable-rate mortgage holders face.
The president of a local realtor’s association, Jim Ford, says Knoxville home buyers don’t have the same worries as in the West Coast markets, however.
“Let’s say in San Francisco, an average house would be $1 million. Well, the average guy can’t afford that. So to get in, he’s got to get in a non-conforming loan,” Ford says.
Ford says you won’t find that scenario in Knoxville. But just to make sure you don’t owe more than your house is worth, he says you should stick to what you can afford. Talk about your options with a home mortgage broker today.
There is good news at least: Now might be the time to make an offer, at least in East Tennessee housing market, Ford says.
“I think today, it’s a buyers’ market. And again two reasons why: Inventory’s good. Lots of inventory of houses and interest rates are hovering about six or a little bit less.”
Posted by Jed Moss on Mar 19 2007 under Tennessee
Tennessee Mortgage Demand, Home Sales Drop in February
Home sales in the Middle Tennessee housing market were down 1.3 percent from February 2006, but the prices of homes and condos are rising, according to data released from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.
This means there were 35 more homes, a total of 2,610, sold last February. Last month’s tally, which totaled 2,575, represents the second-highest February home sales on record in the Nashville housing market.
Year-to-date closings through February are down slightly more at 2.3 percent. That equates to 4,864 closings compared with 4,981 closings reported through February 2006.
GNAR President Richard Courtney says the figures mean the local market is stable.
“The number of closings during February shows that this market is sustaining a very aggressive pace,” Courtney said in the release. “The [Tennessee mortgage] market activity is virtually on track with last year’s record-breaking numbers.”
There were 2,874 sales pending at the end of the month, compared with 2,962 pending sales at this time last year. The average number of days on the market for a single-family home was 72 days.
The median residential price for a single-family home during February was $169,900. A condo price was slightly lower at $163,000. This represents an increase from last year’s median residential and condominium prices of $164,900 and $145,000, respectively - home purchase loan borrowers who are looking for a return on their investments should be glad that values are on the way up in the region.
Posted by Jed Moss on Mar 13 2007 under Tennessee
Tennessee Housing Market Drop: It Could Be Worse
It’s never a good sign when the number of Tennessee mortgage defaults are almost equivalent to the number of home sales in the state.
It’s also a less than ideal sign when the 2,289 home closings reported locally in January represent a 3.4 percent drop from the same period last year within the Tennessee housing market, according to data from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.
(Of those closings, 1,779 were single-family houses, 287 were condominiums, 40 were multi-family units and 183 were residential properties.)
Despite these figures, however, Middle Tennessee fared better than most states. According to the National Association of Relators, home sales and home purchase loan activity nationwide were down a little more than 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, compared to the same period last year.
The national median home price was $219,300 in the fourth quarter, down 2.7 percent from the previous year, when the median price was $225,300.
Total existing-home sales in the South were at an annual rate of 2.49 million units in the fourth quarter, down 8.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005, GNAR reports. Therefore, while Tennessee mortgage loans were not as popular as years past, demand is actually stronger here than in many parts of the country.
Posted by Jed Moss on Feb 26 2007 under Tennessee