Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - by Brandi Pearl Thompson, president, Greater Chattanooga Realtors
We started off the year with continued low interest rates, low unemployment, and rising rents across the country. These factors should encourage healthy buyer demand and sets us up for a strong start to the 2020 housing market and a lot of optimism for the coming spring market.
For the rest of 2020, The National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun sees good news for home prices. “National median home price growth is in no danger of falling due to inventory shortages and will rise by 4 percent,” Mr. Yun predicts. He is also expecting the new-home construction market sales to increase 10 percent. Mr. Yun and others would like to see home builders bring more affordable units to market to help ease shortages and slow price gains in that segment.
In Chattanooga, New Listings decreased 5.6 percent to 1,022. Pending Sales were up 19.5 percent to 890. Inventory levels shrank 21.0 percent to 2,257 units.
Prices continued to gain traction. The Median Sales Price increased 13.9 percent to $205,000. Days on Market was down 8.1 percent to 57 days. Sellers were encouraged as Months Supply of Inventory was down 29.4 percent to 2.4 months.
It’s worth noting that Closed Sales (number of homes sold) in January 2020 was 26.7 percent more than January 2019. That’s a difference between 555 and 703 homes. The weather might be cool (depending on Tennessee weather), but the housing market certainly is not.
Markets may change, but Realtors’ commitment to serving our clients doesn’t. Navigating a market that can shift quickly is just one reason why consulting a Realtor is so important. We keep a watchful eye on trends locally and nationally that might affect our clients and community. That’s Who We R.