The Greater Chattanooga real estate market just closed out its fourth consecutive year of home sales increases! The overall market posted a 9.9 percent increase in the number of homes sold in 2016 when compared to 2015. With 9,623 homes closing in 2016, the market has eclipsed the prerecession high sales points.
Demand for residential housing did not diminish despite a 19.8 percent decrease in the number of units available for sale. To give some perspective to this number, GCAR ended 2016 with 3,165 homes listed for sale, which is in sharp contrast to 2013, when the year-end total stood at 5,148. The last time inventory levels hit a point this low was in January 2005.
When we look at prices, we see the consistent march upward, as has been the trend over the last several years. The average price of a home sold in the Greater Chattanooga Market ended the year at $193,752. This price represents a 6.5 percent increase over the 2015 average home price. The market has recovered all of the losses incurred from 2009-2011, and this average price far exceeds the peak prices of 2007 and 2008.
It took just 65 days for the average home to sell in 2016. This shortened Days on Market (DOM) represents an 18.8 percent decrease when compared to 2015, and represents another a sharp contrast to 2012, when we saw the yearly average stand at 114 days. DOM reached a peak in the spring of 2011 at 140.
A statistic that directly corresponds to DOM is the Months of Supply (MOS). Our market ended 2016 with 3.9 months of inventory on hand, which denotes another sharp contrast to 2012, when we saw 8.3 months. Be sure to return to this space next week for an in-depth explanation of this term and why it’s important.
Finally, the amount of negotiating taking place in the market decreased in 2016, as would be expected given the high demand and reduced inventory levels. For 2016, the overall market achieved 95 percent of the original list price, which is an improvement of .8 percent over 2015 and a dramatic improvement from 2012, when the average stood at 91.2 percent of original list price.
The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors is The Voice of Real Estate in Greater Chattanooga.
The Association is a regional organization with more than 1,700 members, and is one of more than 1,400 local boards and associations of Realtors nationwide that comprise the National Association of Realtors.
The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors services Hamilton and Sequatchie counties in southeast Tennessee, and Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties in northwest Georgia.
Go to www.gcar.net for more information.