Residential real estate continues to soar through the pandemic, and those who practice the trade are sympathetic to those that are suffering. Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Corporation, delivered some sobering statistics recently when he spoke to a group of Realtors.

One of the most alarming statistics is that Nashville has lost $2.45 billion in visitor spending as a result of the pandemic, more than $100 million per week. This comes after Nashville had experienced record revenues for nine consecutive years and had been tabbed as the top destination city in the world.

Yet in comparison to other cities, Nashville has fared better. Spyridon says New Orleans has had 1,400 individual restaurants close, and 400 of those will probably never open again. Charlotte has armed guards on the streets, he says, and Tampa is a ghost town.

New York, Spyridon adds, relies on international travels for 70% of its revenue and will take several years to rebound.

Nashville, however, is more resilient, he says, as will once be evidenced in the coming recovery.

Spyridon says the city had survived and rebounded from the 1998 tornado, the aftermath of 9/11, the Great Recession and the 2010 flood. The tornado and pandemic this year will have the same effect, he adds, and the city will soon regain the vibrancy of years past.

There are 95,000 room nights booked for the future, and his group is averaging 10 leads per week from companies planning events in Nashville. Of the 2021 reservations, few have canceled, and most of the cancellations for 2020 have continued to communicate with the CVC and plan to return when they can.

Despite the woes of the hospitality industry, residential real estate continues to compile incredibly blistering numbers. Last July, 42 houses sold for $1 million or more in Davidson County. In July 2020, there were 65 sales for more than $1 million. Both numbers are staggering.

Many of those sales were fueled by the efforts of the CVB in conjunction with the economic development offices of Metro and the governor’s office. With attendance for conventions down, the next big move to Nashville might have been postponed.

Perhaps current activity in the residential real estate market is a result of work these organization did years ago with Amazon, Alliance Bernstein and others.

Sale of the Week

Aberdeen Road is found in Cherokee Park, a neighborhood bounded by St. Cecilia, the railroad tracks near McCabe Golf Course, Historic Richland-West End and Sylvan Park.

Aberdeen Road has the railroad track with the calming rumble of the trains in the backyard of its northern side, with Lauderdale behind the homes that line the southern properties within earshot of the MBA football announcer on autumn nights.

With the golf course, Richland Creek Greenway, St. Thomas Hospital, Hill Center Shopping and all the Sylvan Park dining opportunities only a few hundred yards away, the area has jumped into the fray with the high-priced Nashville real estate.

The house at 4206 Aberdeen Road, which backs up to the tracks that separate it from McCabe Golf Course, sold for $745,000 last week as two of Nashville’s best, not to mention kindest, Realtors teamed to make the sale. Both listing agent Stephen Carr and buyer’s agent Caroline Rigsby hail from Zeitlin Sotheby’s International Realty.

Carr has been involved with the education committee with the Greater Nashville Realtors and has been involved in the Project Pencil program with Hillwood Middle school for years. Caroline has labored long and hard in the downtown residential community and has been involved in most of the successful high-rise communities downtown.

Carr’s listing at 4206 Aberdeen Road sold for $319 per square foot in nine days. With four bedrooms, and three bathrooms, the 2,336-square-foot home includes two owner’s suites, even though there is only one owner. Since the term “master suite” is now understandably obsolete, real estate people are scurrying to find replacement descriptive terms for the suite that formerly had that designation.

Describing the rooms as the “owner’s suite” fell into place, but in this case, it fails. Perhaps for that reason, some tried “main suite,” yet once again, when there are two, it does not hold water.

Part of the problem is that homes have grown, and builders and renovators are forced to give each bedroom its own bathroom, ushering the designation of “ensuite.”

For the uninformed, that means there is a bathroom connected to the bedroom, just like the owners’ suite.

The fact is that all the old school master suites were and are ensuites, but now the word ensuite refers to a smaller suite than the owner’s/main/master suite. Going forward, we could learn from one of today’s elected officials and have a very big ensuite, a very, very big ensuite and a huge ensuite along with a perfect ensuite.

Carr says the home has a fenced yard, covered, secure parking and a great deck. Recent updates include a programmable thermostat, insulated glass windows, a tankless water heater and spray foam insulation.

The list price was $760,000, which Rigsby helped her clients reduce to $745,000.

Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty and can be reached at [email protected].