Tennessee Home Closures Rise While Will Co’s Shrink

housing survey

More signs point toward a coming kink in the Williamson County housing market.

Second-quarter home sale numbers from the Tennessee Association of REALTORS show Williamson County’s growth rate in sales fell, while it increased overall in the state.

Sales in Tennessee increased by 7.4 percent over last year, while Williamson County’s declined slightly, by about half a percent.

In April through June of last year Williamson County saw 1606 homes sold. There were 1600 in the same span this year. On the year, sales are still 4 percent higher than at the end of June 2015, due to a strong first quarter. In January through March of this year, 1053 residential sales closed compared to 955 that period in 2015.

However, the glaring difference between Williamson County and the rest of the state is median closing price. At $459,000 in June in Williamson County versus $194,000 state-wide.

Demand for dwindling inventory pushes prices ever higher here. While in other areas of the state, land prices are still low and therefore slowing down price growth, in Middle Tennessee and Williamson County especially.

“We were kind of ahead of the curve on some of that,” David Logan. “There is only about a two month supply of houses on the market at current demand, and those houses coming onto the market are not at the price that is most in demand. Downsizing older families and expanding younger families are looking for houses at right about the median but what is in inventory costs about $100,000 or so more. High-land prices cause developers to build more expensive houses, because they just cannot justify the low profit margins usually on $350,000- $450,000 houses.”

In June, the sales of single-family homes highlighted the trend. Prices in Williamson County are rising and sales falling faster than the rest of the state.

Statewide sales of single-family homes increased by 2.3 percent over last June, with median price increasing 6.6 percent and inventory falling by 27.9 percent.

Closings in June in Williamson County decreased by 12.9 percent from last year, while median price rose 12.7 percent. Inventory, also, is down: by 10 percent.

Even when compared to Middle Tennessee overall, with counties experiencing similar economic forces, Williamson County’s sales decreased and prices increased at higher rates in June. Mid-state sales decreased by 1.8 percent while median price rose by 8.7 percent.

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