The Nashville TN region’s streak of month-over-month record median home prices came to an end in July with a drop to $288,243, but Realtors say it’s too early to declare a trend.
“It’s very likely there were proportionally more ‘starter’ homes sold in July than the number of starter homes sold in June,” Scott Troxel, president of trade group Greater Nashville Realtors, said about a potential factor. “My experience is that different sectors of the market are more engaged and less-engaged at different times of the year…. As supply and demand continue to be at odds, prices can be expected to continue to rise.”
Although last month’s Nashville area median price of a single-family home fell nearly 2 percent from June’s record $293,753, Greater Nashville Realtors’ tracking still showed an 8 percent gain from July a year ago.
“It’s just a blip,” Murray Huber, an appraiser with Nashville-based Huber & Lamb Appraisal Group, said about the end to this year’s four-month record median price streak. “It’s just seasonal fluctuation and not anything more.”
Typically, the summer months of June and July are the top home-selling months with May and August close behind. Historically, the market slows in September and the number of month-over-month sales continue to decline through the winter months.
At the end of July, 3,887 Nashville, TN area residential properties were under contract, a 13 percent from that same time a year ago that indicates strong year-over-year sales for the current month of August.
“Based on everything else, I’m still believing that our market is strong,” Huber said, adding that activity in July is typically affected by families taking last-minute, end-of-summer vacations and getting their children ready for school.
The residential inventory at the end of July was down 5 percent year-over-year to 6,117 homes or a less than two-month’s supply, but up 5 percent from June 2017.
“That’s a trend we’ve been seeing this year — that inventory continues to decline,” Huber said.
On average, homes sold in July spent 25 days on the market, down from 31 a year ago.
As evidence of fluctuations, July, December and October saw last year’s highest median price for a single-family home locally. In 2015, it was June, December and September.
For July, the median price of a condo was $203,000, up 7 percent from that month a year ago. On a month-over-month basis, the median price rose 1.8 percent from June.
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