Condo News Highlights

Affordable townhouses are the new starter homes for many who can't afford big high-priced houses, yet first-time buyer Amy Childers was looking for more.

"I wanted a yard not a patio," said Childers, a young single woman who bought a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the Indian Creek subdivision to share with her small Shih Tzu in west Murfreesboro.

While the high cost of housing may have stalled in other parts of the country, the housing market in Rutherford County continues to flourish in a way that benefits buyers, sellers and home builders for homes in most price ranges up to $300,000, said Bud George, the general manager for Bob Parks Realty.

"We're selling more in every price range," George said. "This is an extremely healthy real estate market."

Home buyers this year have closed on 5,883 through November at an average price of $172,240, and about 44 percent of them were new houses, according to RealTracs Multiple Listing Service. The total is 17 more than reported for the same period in 2005 at an average price of $160,900. House sales for 2006 so far also surpass the total in 2000 of 3,630 when the average price was $127,100.

"Currently we have 2,183 homes (for sale), which is about four months supply," George said. "This is an extremely healthy real estate market."

Regional trends

The median price for a single-family home in much of the Middle Tennessee area, including Rutherford County, was $174,900 in November, according to a news release from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.

Real estate professionals usually consider a six-month supply of homes based on the rate of sales to be a balanced market for buyers and sellers, and the association reports that's the case in the region.

The market is far better here than in San Francisco where people face $700,000 home prices, said Tad Craig, president of the board for Middle Tennessee Association of Realtors.

"Across the country you are getting slowdowns, but this has still been a fantastic year in the Southeast area in general," said Craig, noting that prices everywhere have risen, in part because of the demand for building materials since Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Local agents, though, are better trained than ever to help buyers and sellers make a successful transaction on homes, said Craig, whose organization of 1,900 real estate professionals includes 986 representatives from Murfreesboro and 184 from Smyrna.

The home builders are also meeting higher standards and attracting buyers with community pools, tennis courts, underground utilities, sidewalks and good locations, he added.

"They're not just selling houses," Craig said. "They're selling lifestyles."

Rise in high density

Buyers looking for starter homes are now having to buy townhouses because of the high cost of land and building materials, said Rob Calk, the sales and marketing manager for Ole South Properties in Murfreesboro.

"We'll close 750 to 800 homes in the year 2006, and 50 percent of those are going to be townhome sales," said Calk, whose company is building several subdivisions in Rutherford County with townhouses in the $110,000 to $140,000 range. "That's what we've replaced our affordable houses with — townhomes."

Ole South Properties began the previous decade building single-family starter homes in Evergreen Farms subdivision in west Murfreesboro, and these 1,100-square-foot houses on quarter-acre lots sold for about $70,000, Calk recalled.

"That same house today is pushing $130,000," said Calk, noting that those homes are being squeezed on about an eighth of an acre to keep them affordable. "You have no yard at all."

Not all first-time buyers, though, want high density.

"I've already lived in an apartment, which is not a whole lot different than a condo," said Childers, who's glad to have a yard for her Shih Tzu in their new home off Fortress Boulevard near Blackman schools. "There's not a whole lot of difference in price."

A University of North Alabama graduate in 2004, Childers works in pharmaceutical sales here. Her new home is big enough for out-of-town guests to visit overnight.

"What was important to me was resale value and finding a safe, secure area," she said. "The area here is new and upcoming. I think it was a good choice. It's near the schools. It will be easier to resell."