For the third straight month, the median price of a Nashville-area, single-family home has broken a record.
In June 3,188 single-family homes changed hands across the region for a median price of $260,148, according to the latest monthly tracking by the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.
Last month’s 1.7 percent year-over-year increase in overall residential property closings and record median price came after mortgage investor Freddie Mac ranked Nashville the nation’s most stable housing market.
“The Nashville metro housing market continues to show strong growth, is doing better than the state as a whole, and the key indicators that we track are all moving in the right direction,” said Chad Wandler, a spokesman for McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac, which tracks U.S. and local housing performance monthly.
GNAR’s data for June showed only a 2.7-month supply of single-family homes and overall 3.2-month supply of residential properties, including condos, on the Nashville market.
“There’s not a great deal of inventory, and scarcity translates into higher prices,” said appraiser Richard Exton of Manier and Exton.
At the end of June, 3,876 sales were pending, up roughly 0.6 percent from the same time a year ago. Exton sees that as reflecting that sales for July should be in line with last year’s.
Year-to-date, residential property closings for Greater Nashville are up 7.2 percent compared to midyear 2015 with 18,452 sales, according to GNAR’s tracking. Last month’s 3,869 closings contributed to a 5.3 percent increase during the second quarter, with 10,851 residential properties sold.
Freddie Mac’s Multi-Indicator Market Index for April showed Nashville above the city’s historical average for employment and the vast majority of people here current on their mortgages. Its data also showed that homes in the Nashville area remain generally affordable, due in part to low mortgage interest rates. Meanwhile, local applications for home purchases up nearly 20 percent in April compared to last year.
“Interest rates continue to hover at all-time lows making it an excellent time to purchase a home,” said Denise Creswell, president of GNAR, in a statement. “And with solid median prices, potential sellers have a good opportunity to make a move as the inventory is needed to maintain a healthy market.”
Mike Hardwick, president and owner of Brentwood-based Churchill Mortgage, sees interest rates remaining stable. He sees a low supply of homes and stagnant real income among challenges for the U.S. housing market.
“The real adjusted wages for lower-to-middle-income people haven’t really gone up in over a decade, while home prices have been going up,” Hardwick said, calling that widening gap a drag on home sales.
Originally published: The Tennessean