Tennessee’s housing market continued a solid showing in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the latest statewide quarterly report from the MTSU Business and Economic Research Center.

Compared to the third quarter last year, the number of new single-family construction permits was up 4 percent, in contrast to an 8 percent drop in multi-family permits.

“Home sales are considerably higher,” noted BERC Director Murat Arik. “Inventories are down and closings up in the Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville areas.”

Other report highlights include:

• Housing prices over the year are up for all 10 metro areas tracked and the state as a whole.
• Nashville area housing prices rose 9.9 percent for the quarter, the largest increase statewide.
• The percent increase in housing prices in Tennessee versus the United States continues to widen as it has for several quarters.
• Nearly every area tracked by the report has shown positive growth since the fourth quarter of 2015.

See the full latest and previous reports with detailed breakdowns and summaries at http://mtsu.edu/berc/housing.php.

Dr. Murat Arik

BERC’s report is funded by Tennessee Housing Development Agency. The quarterly 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/.

THDA publishes research on affordable housing, its programs and beneficiaries. THDA 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)