Nashville home sales buck national trend

[smeagolsfree]

An article in the Tennessean today show that home and condo sales are still red hot here. Not to mention the price.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../604110383/1003

[rocky top buzz]

This begs the questions, is this good for the local market? If prices continue to increase, won't the "bust" be even bigger? I don't think you can atrribute any large portion of this increase to Nissan or Louisiana-Pacific; that's maybe 1%-2%.

I do like how this article states that the difference between us and coastal area's is that our growth is based on the job market. I do agree that as long as people continue to have jobs and can afford the higher prices, we'll be ok (coastal homes are typically more investment type homes or retirement homes). But with housing prices increasing, fuel prices increasing, utility costs increasing, and wages increasing at a slower pace, something is going to have to give.

[Hankster]

What's happening in Nashville, and other areas of the Volunteer State has happened earlier in many areas of the country. A year or so ago the housing market was red hot in Florida and the Northeast and was seeing annual increases of 20% or more....an unsustainable rate indeed! The markets are cooling off there now, and hopefully it will be a slow cooling and not a bursting bubble. While that was happening, Tenessee prices were going up at moderate sutainable rates. Now, however, it seems the red hot real estate market is moving into Tennessee. Frankly, it hasn't gotten as hot here as it did at the peak in other areas, so there's a chance prices still have a ways to move up. I personally hope they start to slowly decelerate the rate of increase back to sustainable price increase levels. That will be better and safer for everyone.