In three weeks, the Greater Nashville Realtors will release the September sales numbers showing record sales for the month. These sales figures will show more sales this month than there were a year ago and in all the years prior to that.
Having those cold, hard numbers, it might seem ridiculous to say that the market has cooled. But it has.
Last week’s sales in the segment of the city long referred to by the Multiple Listing Service as Area 2 are indicative of what is happening.
Area 2 includes Belle Meade with its Links, Courts and Highlands along with West Meade, Green Hills, Bellevue, Sylvan Park, Historic Richland Central, Belmont, 12South, Lipscomb, Cherokee Park, Forest Hills, Oak Hill and other areas in and around those neighborhoods.
That area has led the way during recoveries and been the last to fall, or, perhaps more accurately, dwindle when recessions strike. While 12South, East Nashville, the Nations and other communities have experienced recent spikes, they lack the history of Area 2, almost as mystical and storied as Roswell’s Area 51.
Many feel that Roswell was the site of a UFO crash in which living creatures from another planet died or were wounded. The government long maintained it was flying a weather balloon, later reporting that it was a disc capable of monitoring nuclear testing.
Area 2 is the nucleus of all things happening in Nashville real estate, and last week had 42 closed sales, not involving new construction, which can skew numbers as builders rarely reduce prices and the contracts had have been written months ago or longer.
Of the 42 closed sales in Area 2, 10 properties sold for more than list price, one for $400 more, another for $1,000 more, and six sold for list price.
Last week, 26 houses in Area 2 sold for less than list price. It is slowing.
While “location, location, location” had its day in the sun, “condition, price, condition” has replaced the ages-old real estate mantra.
Sale of the Week
If Lori Tackett of RE/MAX Elite and her seller of the home located at 4109 Colorado Avenue are like most broker/seller teams, she and the owner were excited at the prospects of receiving multiple offers and bidding the house into higher stratosphere than the $549,900 price tag they placed on the property.
While the $350 per-square-foot price pushed the market, Tackett and the seller had a plan. They allowed the 4th of July to pass and the vacationers to return to town before conveniently listing the house on 7/11.
Then it happened, or in this case, it did not. The showings did not spawn offers.
Last week, the sale closed for $448,000, or $286 per square foot, still well above the $275 per-square-foot average price in Sylvan Park, but $100,000 off the price the seller had hoped to achieve.
Tackett is one of the more successful residential real estate brokers in Nashville and is familiar with Sylvan Park.
In her comments, she stated that Colorado was the “most desirable street in Sylvan Park” and is a cozy street much like Nebraska, whose denizens may ask to cite the difference. Many there may feel theirs is the most desirable, at least it is for them.
Someone from the state of Colorado might not realize that Nebraska – the street – is the next street over from Colorado and runs parallel for their duration, unlike the states of Colorado and Nebraska, which share a small portion of their respective borders.
This year, there was a sale at 4200 Nebraska for $364 per square foot in April while a home on Colorado sold for $262 per square foot in August, so the Cornhuskers have the bragging rights there.
But all of these prices per square foot point to the uselessness of the statistic. Those pesky Utes living on Utah, the next street past Nebraska, boasted sales of $340 and $320 per square foot along with one sale of a large new construction for $225 per square foot.
Tackett also stated the draperies would not remain, a condition that is not uncommon in real estate sales and a restriction the seller felt was important, no doubt. With the masses relocating to Nashville, sellers should buy new draperies and install them. These new residents with no knowledge of the city do not want to dress their windows.
When the dust settled, the seller was paid $448,000 for two bedrooms and one bath situated in 1,568 square feet that the seller paid $158,900 for in 1997.
Tackett served her client well, and Brian Glasser of Worth Properties once again proved that the Worth brokers sell all over town and in all price ranges. Glasser is omnipresent in this market and is often heralded for his many accomplishments.
Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney, and Associates and can be reached at [email protected].