In a year beset with a pandemic, tornadoes and civil unrest, one bright spot that emerged in 2020 was a residential real estate market that enjoyed record-high sales and home prices in Chattanooga.
Buoyed by historically low mortgage rates and an increased focus on home life during the pandemic, Chattanooga home sales rose 8.4% during 2020, even as median home prices jumped by more than 13% to a record high of $230,000. Despite the economic slowdown and employment drop triggered by the pandemic, Chattanooga Realtors boosted home sales in nearly all areas of the city, according to new data compiled by the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors.
Although the pandemic temporarily slowed housing sales and starts last spring, Realtors ended 2020 selling 904 more single-family houses than the previous record high set in 2019. Homes sold at the quickest pace in modern history last year, with the typical house selling in Chattanooga in just 43 days – 10.4% quicker than the previous year and twice as fast as six years ago.
“Interest rates remain near their all-time lows and, as a result, we’re seeing many people now whose buying power has increased $50,000 to $100,000 on what they can afford to pay for a house,” said Robert Backer, a local real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Pryor Realty Inc. and the 2021 president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors.
Chattanooga home sales
The number of single-family homes sold by Chattanooga Realtors rose nearly 8.4% last year to a record high, nearly double the sales of a decade earlier.2020 – 11,6802019 – 10,7762018 – 10,0422017 – 9,8272016 – 9,6722015 – 8,7172014 – 7,8272013 – 7,6342012 – 7,0382011 – 5,9962010 – 5,7782009 – 5,5962008 – 5,9902007 – 7,0242006 – 7,870Source: Greater Chattanooga Realtors association multiple listing service