2014 by the numbers
* $147,900 - Median sales price, up 5.9 percent from 2013 * 129 - Average number of days a home was on the market before it sold, up 4 percent from 2013 * 11,987 - Number of new properties listed for sale, down 0.5 percent from 2013 * 4,467 - Average inventory of homes listed, down 11 percent from 2013 * 92.4 - Percent of original asking price received at sale, up 0.2 percent from 2013 Source: Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors
Chattanooga Realtors last year sold the most number of houses since before the recession in 2006 and expect to do even better in 2015.
"We're very optimistic about the new year," Travis Close, president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors, said Friday. "New construction should continue to grow and more millennials (ages 25-34) should enter the home-buying market to help continue the momentum we've already seen."
Realtors sold 7,323 homes last year, up a modest 0.7 percent from the previous year. Although the sales gain was down from the previous three years, sale prices of those homes that sold continued to increase in value. The median price of the homes sold in Chattanooga last year was up 5.9 percent to $149,700.
Close, a Realtor for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Realty Center, said mortgage rates are likely to rise from their historic lows later in 2015. But last month's decision by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the down payment requirements on home purchases from 5 percent to 3 percent "will allow many first-time, creditworthy buyers, who would otherwise be kept out of the market, to purchase a home."
Despite the gains in sales and prices in 2014, home sales last year still remained more than 10 percent below the peak reached in Chattanooga during 2006 before the housing slump hit the market.
"It's a multi-year recovery that is taking some time to get back to where we were," said Nathan Walldorf, president-elect for Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors and an agent for Herman Walldorf & Co. Inc. "But each year seems to get better than the last."
Waldorf said the planned $600 million expansion of the Volkswagen plant -- projected to add more than 2,000 jobs -- and the continuing appeal of the Gig city's burgeoning downtown tech scene should fuel further economic growth in the region this year.
"It's great to have the president of the United States highlighting the success of your town," Walldorf said, referring to President Obama's praise this week of Chattanooga's fastest-in-the-nation Internet service.
CoreLogic projects that nationwide U.S. home sales will rise 9 percent in 2015 even as mortgage rates edge higher due to the Federal Reserve Bank phasing out its bond-buying program later this year.
Homebuilding is also expected to pick up steam. CoreLogic projects that U.S. housing starts will grow 14 percent in 2015 to 1.1 million new homes.
"Stronger economic fundamentals mean demand for housing is expected to increase," CoreLogic said in its 2015 forecast.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.