Vacation and second homes sales rebound around greater Chattanooga area

On a warm, clear late-April day following a week of near-constant rain, John Tatum cleared out space in his reliable maroon work pickup to take guests up and down, in and out of the winding Lookout Valley glade that has for years been undergoing a dramatic transformation.

The Bobcat blade has done its work, shaving away scrubby north Georgia woods and revealing a rolling pastoral paradise in this area between Chickamauga and Chattanooga, meeting tar-patched Georgia State Highway 193 on the east and running away westward to the foot of Lookout Mountain, then up, to a deep mountain cave where the cold waters of a trickling stream begin -- 450 acres in all.

For years, the gate on Tatum's creation has been open without a lot of entries. But buyers are coming back to the second home and vacation housing market.

Sales of vacation homes in 2014 jumped to an estimated 1.13 million last year, up from the 717,000 sold in 2013, according to the National Association of Realtors. Last year's sales of vacation homes, both new and existing, were the best since the Realtors' group began tracking such numbers in 2003 through its annual survey of residential homebuyers.

Cloudland Station, at the foot of Lookout Mountain, has walking trails, a rec center in a repurposed barn, antique brick walkways, an event area and Infinity swimming pool.

"Affluent households have greatly benefited from strong growth in the stock market in recent years, and the steady rise in home prices has likely given them reassurance that real estate remains an attractive long-term investment," said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist. "Furthermore, last year's impressive increase also reflects long-term growth in the numbers of baby boomers moving closer to retirement and buying second homes to convert into their primary home in a few years."

The market has changed dramatically since the 2009-2010 recession, which hit Tatum only a few years after he began developing Cloudland Station. But Tatum doesn't dwell on the past. After hunkering down and holding back during the recession, he's busy now going forward.

Instead of a big, empty piece of property with nothing more than a stack of promotional material to show new buyers, Tatum opens the gate to Cloudland Station and reveals shovel-ready lots.

"We sped up when things were slowing down in a lot of ways," he said, looking down the winding antique brick street that runs away toward leafy Lookout Mountain. "Just this last year, it started to turn. Pretty much last year, [buyers] started coming out and looking."

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About an hour's drive northwest of Cloudland Station, a hardy asphalt road snakes up the side of Jasper Mountain, arriving finally at the entrance to Jasper Highlands, the high-end, mountain-top community straight out of the portfolio of John "Thunder" Thornton.

Away south rolls the Tennessee River, under the signature blue bridge of South Pittsburg, then split by a 100-acre long island and finally bypassing the twin, toothpick-size smoke stacks of the Widows Creek Fossil Plant in northeast Alabama before finally fading from view.

With over 20 miles of brow property, all 98 lots in the first phase of development are sold and 20 new homes are under construction right now. This is heaven on earth as far as Thornton is concerned.

But he, like all developers, traveled through hell to get here.

"That two-year timeframe," said Thornton, "it was the third quarter of 2010 before we started seeing a pulse."

Otherwise, the last seven years have been "tough times."

Cloudland Station, at the foot of Lookout Mountain, has walking trails, a rec center in a repurposed barn, antique brick walkways, an event area and Infinity swimming pool.

"Car dealerships, they would sell a few cars every month," Thornton said. "But developers went a year-and-a-half or so without making a sale."

Fortunately, he adds, Jasper Highlands didn't go into development until after the worst part of the recession. But all around it, other high-end, mountaintop or lake properties being developed as retirement or second homes have struggled to get started. Major projects like the 550-acre Rarity Club in Marion County or the 2,00-acre Preserve at Rising Fawn on North Georgia ended up in bankruptcy before they got developed.

But those tough times taught developers something. Tatum and Thornton agree on something: The home market is changing, or has already changed.

Buyers are a mixed bag of retirees, empty-nesters and folks simply trying to get closer to children or grandchildren -- a key driver not to be underestimated, say both Thornton and Tatum.

Developments like Cloudland Station and Jasper Highlands a decade ago were geared largely toward golfers.

Buildings in the event area known as the Homestead and Gardens at Cloudland Station.

Neither Tatum nor Thornton have included golf facilities this time. Instead, there are miles of walking trails -- something their healthy, mobile demographic has asked for in market studies.

Both developments also are close enough to Chattanooga and other urban amenities and jobs to appeal to retirees, vacationers or those looking for primary residences while they work.

"I've had offers from people to build a golf course up on this mountain," said Thornton. "But I don't want one."

What people want is green space, he says.

Consequently, in these new non-essential housing communities, there are no homes smashed together, concrete driveways parallel and standing feet apart with neat curbside mailboxes.

"This is a totally different market now," says Thornton.

John "Thunder" Thornton is the developer of Jasper Highlands, a high-end community atop Jasper Mountain in Marion County. This aerial photograph shows the view from the development, which features 20 miles of brow lots.

He gets calls from Californians wanting to know if there's enough water here, calls from Texans who want to know how bad traffic gets -- folks leaving places with higher taxes, higher costs of living and higher home prices.

The housing market may not be as strong as it was at its pre-recession peak, but it's not horrible. And it's improving, said Thornton.

"We planned. We engineered. We refocused our development," he says.

Thornton also prepared for this day.

And now, "our outlook is really promising looking forward for '15' and '16," he says. "We think it's really good."

***

After moving to north Georgia to their new Cloudland Station home, Ken Elliott and Ruth Pearl say it's possible they'll never move again. The couple has lived in Augusta, Ga., for the last 12 years and in Columbus, Ohio, 12 years before that.

Their daughter is in Atlanta, and their son is married and living in St. Elmo.

Retirement is around the corner for Elliott and Pearl, and Cloudland Station is convenient to the two most important people in their lives.

Also, "we're at the downsize stage," says Elliott.

As working professionals, raising a family in this city or that over the years, Elliot says "we had always lived in cookie-cutter neighborhoods."

At Cloudland Station, it was love at first sight: The sub-3,000-square-foot home, the open space and the walking trails -- and a total departure from cookie-cutter.

"As soon as we saw it, we knew it was for us," said Elliott.

Their home is being designed now. The goal is to be moved into the new house within a year's time.

"We don't want to move after we retire," said Elliott. "We don't want to move when we're retiring."

He jokes that this move seems to fly in the face of the old real estate adage, "Don't follow your kids around."

But having a Chattanooga-born-and-bred daughter-in-law, Elliott and Pearl know that if their son moves away, he'll still be coming around every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"We were lucky," Elliott said.

Whether they would have come to Chattanooga under the same circumstances seven years ago is hard to say. A "typical, average American middle-class family," Elliot said market conditions could have shaken his confidence in making a large purchase, but this move is primarily about reaching retirement age and settling down one last time.

Looking ahead, Elliott and Pearl are designing their Cloudland Station home to be wheelchair-accessible -- just in case.

"Bear in mind," said Elliott, "it is on a hill."

Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.