3232 Penn Meade Way

The threat of a recession has been looming throughout the past six months against a backdrop of good and bad jobs reports and optimistic and pessimistic consumer spending reports. The conflicting indicators have left many looking for a safe place to park their cash in order to best weather the storm.

Many real estate investors are waiting for prices to drop like they did during the Great Recession of 2006-09.

Economist Elliot Eisenberg says he doesn’t think that is possible, adding “top-to-bottom redesign of the house mortgage market resulting from Dodd-Frank and other laws and regulations and other laws and regulation which have culminated in substantially tighter underwriting.”

With those safeguards – formerly known as impediments – in place, it would take a 40% to 50% decline in home prices to cause damage “like that of the Great Recession.” And, he adds, prices only dropped 28% during the Great Recession.

Last week there were a few closings in which the sellers’ investments paid dividends in several different areas and in various price ranges. For openers, a trip to Penn Meade Way is in order. Penn Meade is located near the Grand Ole Opry and 20 minutes from downtown.

There were two sales in seven days, one for at 3232 Penn Meade Way that was listed for $285,000 and sold in two days for $280,000, or $289 per square foot for its 968 square feet. The house has three bedrooms and two baths.

The owner purchased the house for $100,656 in October 2004. Those 18 years allow a child to enter kindergarten and graduate from college and have a place to stay with $180,000 in equity. Rachel Stokes of Fathom Realty listed the property, and Cindy Williams of Parks Lakeside represented the buyer.

Just down the street at 3058 Penn Meade Way, a similar house was offered and also sold within two days. This one was listed for $295,000 and sold for $300,000.

The seller bought the home in 2020 for $208,000 and grossed $82,000 for holding the house two years. Vicki Hertel of Regal Realty Group had the listing and Josh Simpson of Reliant Realty ERA Powered delivered the buyer.

In East Nashville, 1207 Forrest Avenue hit the market at $1,199,997 and was listed by real estate veteran Mike Post of Crye-Leike. He showed his wisdom by listing several comparable sales in the private remarks on Realtracs, a move that would hopefully slow the onslaught of idiotic queries from agents asking “How did you get that price?”

As is often the case when Realtors provide their own comps with an offer, they find some bargain-basement sales and for some reason think the buyer will take a reduced price the first week on the market.

902 S. Wilson Blvd

Often, when these price doubters call, the listing agent already has several offers in their pocket for more than list price. Such was the case with Post’s listing, which sold for $1.45 million, $225,000 more than list.

Briana Morant, one of real estate’s brightest stars, won the battle of Forrest Avenue, beating several suitors.

The house has 2,754 square feet with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a half bathroom. The entire house had been renovated with new HVAC and windows, quartz countertops in the new kitchen and received $517 per square foot.

In Green Hills, more of the same with the house at 902 South Wilson Boulevard, where Brianna Morant – there she is again – listed the house for $1.53 million and sold it for $1.856 million, $326,000 more than list, or $510 per square foot. The list price was $421 per square foot.

Buyers these days are not as focused on price per square foot, at least if they want to buy the house.

The South Wilson house has 3,638 per square feet with five bedrooms, three full bathrooms and a half-bath. Obviously, the house was loaded and had been remodeled based on a design by Carlton Edwards. The house had been completely gutted.

Happy Fulk, who generally is, and her partner, Tara McQuire of Parks, bested the other offers and won the door prize, or at least the keys to the door prize.

Over in Sylvan Park, a house at 4109 Westlawn sold for $1.8 million after Debbie Guthrie had dropped the price to $1.785 million. That’s not an enormous bump, but it is almost $800,000 more than what the sellers paid for the house in 2010 ($1,018,275) when prices were rebounding and $1 million was a big leap for that area.

Joni Miller, the ebullient Realtor with Parks provided the buyer for the home.

The big question for those who could reel in bags of money for their real estate holdings is “where would we go?” Based on input from the buyers of today, California is on the most unwanted list. Perry County is nice this time of year.

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