The Greater Chattanooga Realtors recently released their 2019 Annual Report on the local housing market, and 2019 was a very busy year.
The average sales price was just over $238,000, which is a 6.9% increase over 2018 ($222,852).
This increase might reflect a decreased housing inventory. 10,714 homes were sold in the Greater Chattanooga area in 2018, which was a 6.8% increase over 2018 (10,034 homes).
Inventory dropped slightly from 2018. In 2018, there were approximately 3.4 months of inventory, while that amount dropped to 2.6 months in 2019. Maintaining a consistent housing inventory is critical, which is why Realtors continue to work with our elected officials to make sure homeownership remains attainable and affordable for those in every income bracket.
The Days on Market (the average amount of time a property takes to sale) was 48 days. That is a slight decrease from 2018, which was 50 days. Just to give some perspective, the average Days on Market for 2015 was 80 days. In other words, in 2015 houses took 40% longer to sell than in 2018. That’s a fast market!
As for 2020, Dr. Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice president of research at NAR, said the nation’s economic outlook is promising. “I do not foresee a recession in 2020,” he said, citing healthy consumer activity and job creation in every state.
Yun added that because the country has gone more than 10 years without one, some analysts believe the country is “due for a recession.” But Yun counters that theory, saying that current conditions are better than they were before other recessions.
“The U.S. is in need of more new housing,” he said. “Historically, anytime that we have needed to build, there was never a recession. This is an incentive for builders to start more construction. If they do, I think we will have at least 12 consecutive years of economic expansion.”
2019 was a busy market, but the Greater Chattanooga Realtors worked tirelessly for their clients in a competitive market. No one can be sure what 2020 will mean for real estate, but the Greater Chattanooga Realtors will be prepared to assist their clients; no matter what how the market behaves. That’s Who We R®.