BERC report: Tennessee home prices up, market improves in Q4 of 2015

Tennessee’s housing market continued to show noticeable improvement in the last quarter of 2015, according to the latest statewide housing report from the MTSU Business and Economic Research Center.

Dr. Murat Arik

This report is funded by the Tennessee Housing Development Agency to provide regular metrics on the state’s housing market.

Construction permits for single-family homes were up 31 percent across the state for the quarter, while multi-family permits rose a remarkable 72 percent, said BERC Director Murat Arik, who also noted the state’s steadily improving unemployment rate.

Meanwhile, inventory fell and home sales rose in the top three metro areas of Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville throughout the year. Delinquency rates across the state are at a post-recession low for both mortgages past due and foreclosures started, the report notes.

Year-over-year home prices were up 5 percent for the state, with the highest jumps in the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area at 8.2 percent, the Morristown MSA at 5.2 percent, and the Kingsport-Bristol MSA at 4.9 percent.

See the full report at http://mtsu.edu/berc/housing.php.

Under contract with the THDA, BERC releases the “Tennessee Housing Market” report each quarter. The report offers an overview of the state’s economy as it relates to the housing market and includes data on employment, housing construction, rental vacancy rates, real estate transactions and mortgages, home sales and prices, delinquencies and foreclosures.

The Business and Economic Research Center operates under the Jennings A. Jones College of Business at MTSU. For more information, visit http://mtsu.edu/berc.

The THDA publishes research on affordable housing, its programs and beneficiaries. The agency also coordinates state planning for housing through the consolidated planning process, annual action plans and annual performance reports.

See http://thda.org/research-planning/research-planning for more information.

— Jimmy Hart (jimmy.hart@mtsu.edu)

Click the image to see the full report from the MTSU Business and Economic Research Center on the Tennessee housing market for the fourth quarter of 2015. (Courtesy of BERC)