Brian R Kelly

Tag: Chattanooga Home Sales

  • Chattanooga Home Sales Market

    The Chattanooga homes sales market is very good.  There are roughly 500 homes sales a month in Hamilton County, TN for 2017.  There are 1,500 homes currently listed in Chattanooga MLS for sale.  Three months of inventory is a very low historical number.

    Million dollar homes are selling at a record pace.  27 properties sold for $1,000,000 or more in the first seven months of 2017 in Hamilton County.  Only 15 sold in the same time period in 2016.  So the inventory of upper price properties has fallen from 4 years of inventory just a few years ago to 14 months in 2017.

    The average price per square foot has increased 10% ($112 to $123) from 2016 to 2017 when looking at homes selling in the $200,000 – $299,999.  New construction homes in the same price range are selling at $150/sqft and are around 1,800 sqft.  New home sales in this price range made up only 14% of overall sales.  Prior to 2008, new home sales made up roughly 20% of the Chattanooga market.

    So, if the market is so hot, then why is my house sitting on the market for months?  628 houses of the 1,509 houses for sale in Hamilton County, TN have been for sale over 90 days (41% !).  When most houses sell in less than 2 months, why do so many homes sit around?  My personal experience with buyers is they are wanting renovated or new properties.  If your home is dated and shows wear and tear with a premium price, then it will be over looked.  Buyers tend to charge much more in their mind for renovations when they see a property that does not capture their immediate “move in” mindset.  This is a gross blanket statement and so many variables are at stake.  Each property is unique and the reasons that make a home appealing to one person may be offensive to another.

    I showed homes to a family from California recently and they were escaping an urban environment east of LA desert.  Privacy and the peaceful lush green landscape was calling their name.  They wanted a few acres in a rural setting, which is not typical of many buyers.  The point being that shoppers want different lifestyle amenities and “feelings” based on their story.

    So, in conclusion, the Chattanooga home sales market is very stout.  You have to get to the $500,000 price range before you see double digit inventory levels.  The worst price category is only 14 months of inventory, which has been close to 48 months in the not so distant past.  We need more home sellers and builders to soak up the demand that we are currently generating.

    Liberty Homes Chattanooga has helped over 40 families in the last year, it will be an honor to serve you in selling your house or buying your new home !

  • Recent Home Sales Prices Tell Small Part Of Success Story

    recent home sales prices tell small part success story
    Getting To Sold Is Often Journey

    Recent home sales prices tell small part of success story. The tale of a home sale can be one with adversity. The challenge is often finding the correct marketing price. Sometimes the story includes marketing, sometimes staging or perhaps condition. For the purpose of this article we will focus on pricing. List price or “asking price” is a large part of a good Realtor’s job. Like the experts on Antiques Roadshow a good real estate agent knows the latest “sold” prices, and has seen a good bit of competition. Unlike the Roadshow, your agent most likely has a relationship with you. This is good but it also can cloud judgement a bit.

    I was surprised when I looked at 12 sold listings that recently sold in an upscale neighborhood for Chattanooga, TN. What I found was that 50% of the sold homes had been listed with at least 2 different companies at consecutive time periods. My focus is most always on the final sales price and the days on market for that listing period. I had never considered the marketing period prior to the one that was successful. Many of the “first time” efforts lasted longer than the second time.

    This finding does play a part in the article I wrote about many homes not selling. So that means that some of the homes that scored in the did not sell category eventually do.

    What is interesting is what this means for traditional reported numbers. Realtor organizations like to promote all the good things about the housing market. One statistic mentioned is the List Price to Sales Price ratio. Generally this is calculated on the list price last quoted and the sales price as a percentage. So if a house is originally listed for $120,000 and reduced to $100,000 and sells for $97,000 then the List Price to Sales Price ratio is 97%.

    In my study what I found was that the last listing price to sales price ratio was 95%. The original list price to sales price ratio was 91%. But the surprising fact was that HALF of all the sold listings started out with a previous listing and a marketing price of 82% of the final sales price!

    That is a story you will not hear published in Realtor trade publications. Of course you do have to dig a bit because Realtors will leave the second listing off the market until the Days on Market counter resets.

    The moral of this story depends on if you are a buyer or seller.

    If you are a buyer, make an offer on that home that seems priced too high! Especially if the listing has some time on it. There are investors that make a good living on this strategy with bank foreclosures.

    If you are a seller. Then consider market feedback. If you are getting showings consistently but no offers, your price is most likely too high. (Perhaps condition, staging, etc will make a difference). If you are not getting any showings at all then your price may be really high and also you need to check the marketing.

    Happy Home Selling and Buying! and remember that Recent Home Sales Prices Tell Small Part Of Success Story.

  • Chattanooga Home Sales Strong Volunteer Site to Hunter Road 2013

    Chattanooga Home Sales strong Volunteer Site to Hunter Road 2013Chattanooga home sales strong Volunteer Site to Hunter Road 2013. This Chattanooga Realtor loves looking at recently sold home numbers. Over 8 homes sell each month in this area and currently there are only 39 homes for sale. This is a relatively small physical area compared to some of the other MLS divisions. Popular neighborhoods include Hamilton on Hunter, Flagstone, Hunter Village, Hunter Glen, Magnolia Creek, Crooked Creek, and Twin Oaks.

    Most of the area is zoned for Wallace A Smith Elementary, Hunter Middle and Central High School. The MLS area named (Volunteer Site to Hunter Road) is mostly in Ooltewah zip code of 37363.

    The average price home sold for $164,259 in the last year. With no consideration for year built the sold homes average $83 per foot. Hamilton on Hunter is the largest of the neighborhoods.

    Jobs at Volkswagen and Amazon are a huge reason for this area’s success. Modest homes in the meat of the Chattanooga market create a great home selling market.

    Of all the Chattanooga MLS areas, the Volunteer Site to Hunter Road area has the lowest months of inventory currently. A close second is Red Bank. I find that interesting, because Red Bank recently experienced a recent washout of commercial property values.

    Chattanooga Home sales are fun to watch. If you considering a home purchase close to Volunteer Site to Hunter Road then do not blink if you find a decent match. This is the closest thing to a seller’s market in Hamilton County, TN. Chattanooga home sales strong Volunteer Site to Hunter Road 2013.