The Greater Nashville Realtors made it official last week in announcing that 2019 set the record for the most overall sales in real estate history in the Greater Nashville area. With 42,356 total sales, the area topped last year’s sales of 39,514, even with inventory disappearing in David Copperfield fashion.
Who needs elephants when buyers can make entire houses disappear before our very eyes?
Multiple offers are commonplace, yet many shy from them fearing an auction environment. Yet 3,482 buyers went to closing last month compared with the 2,881 that coughed up the cash to buy homes in December of last year. With 2,144 pending sales, there could be more records broken this year as there were only 1,867 pending at the end of the previous December.
More people are arriving by the day, and prices are getting less affordable with each purchase. Eddie Latimer, the founder and president of Affordable Housing Resources, laments the rising prices as his organization is meeting with more and more challenges in servicing its clientele.
Danny Herron, president of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville, defines affordable homes as those that a family making between 30% and 80% of the median income can afford. Latimer notes there was sufficient supply 10 years ago in that range. Construction costs, however, have increased by 70% since that time.
Couple those expenses with land costs that have skyrocketed to 300% to 400% in the past few years, and the product is longer affordable since incomes have increased just 20% during the same period.
Just as Rolex continues to manufacture fine watches and Louis Vuitton has an upscale market for handbags, local homebuilders and developers will meet the demands of the consumers. As the masses migrate into Nashville, the construction industry will build the buyers what they want at the prices they can afford, which is out of the reach of those in the affordable housing community.
Sale of the Week
5325 Cherry Blossom Court
The meritorious Danny Anderson sold yet another stellar listing last week when the property at 5325 Cherry Blossom Court sold for $3.1 million, or $461 per square foot. The 6,726 residence with an 892 square foot pool house rests on 1.58 acres near Otter Creek. For those who do not find splashing about with otters entertaining, there is a pool on the property.
Following a practice that has endured generations in the real estate world, Danny Anderson recruited his offspring to join him in the business. His son, Reid, has the benefit of Danny’s lifetime of knowledge at his fingertips. The Andersons are each other’s perfect complement. Danny has been a fixture in the Williamson County community for years and has served in numerous leadership roles throughout his storied career.
The Andersons boasted that the Cherry Blossom Trail home was the winner of the Lifestyle’s 2018 Kitchen of the Year award and was featured in various regional magazines. The embossed plaster walls in the kitchen no doubt added to its flavor. The house was designed by Jonathan Savage of SAVAGE Interior Design Services, a beast of a company.
Paula Hinegardner, who also has been recognized for her accomplishments in real estate circles, represented the buyer of the home, which includes hand milled, lime washed, oak paneling, a strange phrase worthy of research.
Lime washing is a practice in which oak, usually a White Oak, is washed by hand with lime to give the it a worn, sun bleached look. Based on the photos, the library may have housed some older books, so the walls had to look older.
There are three fireplaces in the home and “three fabulous en suites,” a term that has proliferated in real estate descriptions with the same force that the word literally has steam rolled its way into modern day conversation. If many removed literally from their vocabularies, they would be bereft of adverbs.
The house has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and two half-baths. Outside, the grounds include a covered patio with an outdoor kitchen in close proximity to the pool.
Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty, LLC and can be reached at [email protected].