Nashville housing market remains hot

The Nashville area continues to be one of the hottest housing markets in the country.

New home starts are up over last year despite bad weather having dropped home starts in late 2017 and early 2018. Second quarter 2018 statistics show a 12.5 percent year over year home start jump while closings were down year over year by only 1.3 percent.

More than 100 people arrive each day

The 100-arrivals-per-day statistic has been a touchstone for metro Nashville’s growth. It has held for several years but U.S. Census Bureau data last Spring indicated that the city may have dipped below that number in 2017.

However, the final data showed that an average of 106 people per day arrived in 2017, keeping the MSP (which includes Murfreesboro and Franklin) growing.

In fact, the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization predicts that by 2035, the 10-county area including Nashville will have as many people as today’s Denver metropolitan area.

Affordable housing

This has pushed the need for affordable housing to the limits. While 20,000 units of affordable housing were requested from the Barnes Affordable Housing Trust Fund, only 100 were built with money from the fund.

Housing prices in the Nashville area were at or below the national median for many years, finally topping the national median in 2017. In 2017, the U.S. median cost was $222,408 while the median in Nashville was $236,267.

Meanwhile, fueled by construction booms in other areas of the country coupled with recuperation after weather-related disasters in Texas, Florida and California, a constricted labor market means finding qualified workers will continue to be difficult in the Nashville area. While construction has reached or surpassed pre-Great Recession levels, the workforce continues to shrink, leaving firms to consider investments in automation or building off-site to make up the difference.

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