Nashville Home Sales Continue Climb While Prices Slide In October

Year to date, home sales are up more than six percent from 2013 with big jumps in September and October. Credit: Blake Farmer / WPLN

Nashville area home sales continue to pick up the pace. Closings jumped 22 percent in October, according to monthly numbers out today from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.

“This time of year, we typically see the number of closings begin to decline,” GNAR president Hagan Stone said in a statement. “Having two consecutive months of double-digit, year-over-year increases this late in the year is unexpected yet welcome news.”

While more homes are selling than at this time last year, prices seem to be leveling off. The median price of a single family home has been dropping from an all-time high this summer. It stands now at $205,900.

Dawn Hudson is trying to sell her two-year-old home in one of Middle Tennessee’s hot spots, Murfreesboro. But she’s having trouble competing with the new construction in her neighborhood. The newer houses are being built slightly smaller and cheaper.

“The houses don’t even get finished being built and they’re sold,” Hudson says. “They’re building six by me right now, and they’re all sold.”

Hudson says she’s moving to get away from the noise and construction dust, and she wants to have some mature shade trees.

After three months on the market trying to do for sale by owner, the Hudsons have hired an agent to push things through.

The Raw Numbers

• There were 3,015 closings in October. That’s up from 2,469 in the same month of 2013, but it’s still far below the pre-2007 pace of 3,300 homes in October.
• The average number of days on the market has held relatively steady at 68. But the number of homes on the market continues to shrink. At roughly 15,000, there are basically a thousand fewer homes to choose from.
• Condo sales also continue to improve and prices are moving up, now at $165,000.