The Nashville housing market looks to be a fairly resilient in comparison to the rest of the country. Standard and Poor’s/Case Schiller index of home prices, which follows 20 major U.S. cities, dropped 19 percent year on year for January, the biggest drop recorded for January. 14 out of the 20 cities saw a market decline that hit double digits, 13 of those setting records for a new low.
In contrast, Nashville’s median home price declined by only 4.8 percent to $160,000 in February. Condo prices followed a similar trend with a decline of 2.3% during the same time period. The numbers are a disappointment for potential buyers who were expecting a greater drop in the market and hoping for more enticing home prices.
Responding to an inquiry by the Tennessean, local house hunter Chantonya Merriweather feels the data does not align with conventional views of the current real estate market, “People are saying there are so many foreclosures, and I thought prices would be lower than they were for the particular house I was looking at.”
Real Estate professionals are taking a more positive outlook and see the data in conjunction with a 31% increase in home sales over the prior month as signs of market stability. Many attribute the positive signs to historically low mortgage rates, the $8,000 tax break for first time home buyers and the major savings that can be made when foreclosed properties.
Even with foreclosures are weighing down the median, some feel that the rate of decline in prices will continue to slowly through the spring. Others point to the how closely tied the housing market is to the overall health off the economy and see prices continuing to fall throughout the rest of 2009.
Tweets that mention "In the Nest" Episode 1 - Special Guest: Tara Hunt, Author of The Whuffie Factor | A Bird's Eye View -- Topsy.com on 
qqac on 
Derek Overbey on