MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s latest “Housing Tennessee” report shows annual improvements in home prices, single-family permits and other areas bolstered by a growing workforce, but also showed areas of mixed results such as multifamily permit decreases.

“Tennessee’s housing market presented a mixed landscape for the first quarter of the year,” said Murat Arik, director of the MTSU Business and Economic Research Center and author of its statewide report for the first quarter of 2024.

“While employment and home prices showed notable increases, challenges such as declines in specific sectors and mortgage tax collections persisted,” Arik noted. “Resilience in single-family home construction is encouraging, but rising mortgage delinquencies and homeowner vacancy rates raise concerns. Moving forward, close monitoring of these trends is essential to ensure stability and growth in Tennessee’s housing market.”

See the full report and more detailed breakdowns at https://www.mtsu.edu/berc/housing/. 

Report highlights include: 

Single-family permits in Tennessee were up annually (24%) but was down slightly (2.35%) quarterly. Meanwhile, multifamily permits were down for the state, the South and the U.S., both annually and quarterly.

Home prices continued rising for all Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs:

•  The Cleveland MSA leading with a 14.6% increase.
• Memphis had the smallest rise at 0.9%. 
• Morristown and Knoxville MSAs also saw notable growth (13.8% and 10.7%, respectively.)
• Quarterly, home prices in Tennessee and the U.S. increased by 1.3% and 1%, respectively.

Home closings increased across all regions. 

• Quarterly, Memphis led at 8.6%, followed by Nashville at 7.6%, and Knoxville at 4%. 
• Annually, only Memphis saw an increase (8.65%), while Nashville and Knoxville experienced declines.

Inventory levels grew annually in all regions.

• Knoxville at 29%, Memphis at 15%, and Nashville at 5%. 
• Quarterly, all regions also experienced increases, with Knoxville at 18%, Nashville at 10%, and Memphis at 8.4%.

BERC’s report is funded by Tennessee Housing Development Agency, or THDA. 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/.

About THDA

THDA is the state’s housing finance agency and is committed to expanding safe, sound, affordable housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income Tennesseans.

This is achieved through a robust home loan program, competitive funding for local nonprofit and municipal agencies, and the administration of nine federally funded programs. THDA publishes research on affordable housing and THDA 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 for more information.

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)