In 1967, Stephen Stills wrote a song titled “For What It’s Worth” although those words do not appear anywhere in the song.

The song is better known by its subtitle, “Stop, Look, What’s that Sound” and was recorded by Buffalo Springfield, Stills’ band at the time.

The opening lines are:

“There’s something happening here

“What it is ain’t exactly clear”

The chorus, with some variation, begins:

“I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound?

“Everybody look what’s going down”

Something is happening in residential real estate, and what it is ain’t exactly clear. So I’ve stopped and looked and tried to look at what’s going down.

There are more listings coming on the market than ever before, yet they are being absorbed more quickly than Realtors can list them. That leads back to the question of how many people are moving to town.

Perhaps that question is the answer to “what’s that sound.” It’s the sound created by all those new residents arriving.

Speaking to a group of Realtors recently, Mayor Megan Barry said she had pushed her office to identity how many people are, in fact, relocating here, as there are several groups touting numbers ranging from 50 to 185 relocating here per day.

Now, for another thing that ain’t exactly clear: How do some homes – priced lower than others on the same street that are in similar condition – linger longer on the market?

Sellers are angry, and the agents are perplexed. The buyers respond to the buyers’ agents saying, “Oh, I looked at that one online and I have driven past it and I don’t want to see it.”

Other times the buyers’ agents have seen, or worse think they have seen it, and steer the would-be buyers away.

In other cases, Realtors have the home confused with another home, perhaps a house with structural issues or in need of updating.

Meanwhile, the unfairly stigmatized home suffers.

As a result, there are no showings and no sales. Often, the agents will host breakfasts, luncheons and cocktail parties attempting to lure Realtors so that they may behold the magnificence of the home and bring their buyers.

The last lines of the first verse are:

“There’s a man with a gun over there

“Telling me I got to beware.”

Once again, Stills’ words describe recent Nashville activity, as I can never remember as many shootings in this city as there were over the past couple of weeks.

A year or two ago, then Mayor Karl Dean cited a statistic that the homicide rate for that particular year was lower than any year since 1963.

While there were no homicides for all of the bullets flying, there were bullets and guns and people asking “What’s that sound?”

And now everybody knows what’s going down.

As Mayor Barry noted recently, youth violence is a major issue facing the city, and she is taking steps to get the youth into jobs and other positions that should alleviated the violence.

A concern about safety could slow the growth here, as could the traffic.

Money can solve the traffic issue, lots of money. At some point, we are going to have to pay for it.

As for the shootings, I have my own thoughts, for what it’s worth.

Sale of the Week

Located near Nashville Tech and on the Target side of White Bridge Road, Richland Meadows has suffered from an inferiority complex to the Brookside community across the street.

Converted from duplexes by the legendary, now-late Nelson Andrews in the 1970s, the neighborhood has flourished, appreciating eight to 12 percent per year since the 1980s.

The Richland crew can now crow a little more as their properties have reached the $250-per-square-foot range.

The home perched atop 5604 Meadowcrest Lane boasted 1,320 square feet and sold for $327,000, going under contract in three days.

With three bedrooms and two baths, one of which is an updated master bath, along with hardwood floors, Brad Biel of Village Real Estate tested the waters and reeled in the big one.

John Clayton of Neal Clayton Realtors and a member of the famed Clayton real estate family represented the buyer and was able to negotiate $10,000 off of the purchase price, which is no small feat these days.

However, since the seller had paid $185,000 five years ago, that $10,000 did not cause too much wailing and weeping.

Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney and Associates and can be reached at [email protected].