Despite the economic slowdown, real estate sales rose in Hamilton County during the past year rose by nearly $300 million from the previous year with gains in nearly all type of property sales, according to the Hamilton County Register of Deeds office.
Bolstered by record high sales of major apartment complexes and record low mortgage rates, property sales in Hamilton County topped $3 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30. That was up nearly 10% from the $2.7 billion in property sales during the previous year.
“Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, job furloughs and downturn in the stock market, the Hamilton County real estate market remains very strong,” said Marc Gravitt, the Hamilton County Register of Deeds.
In the past year, the volume of real estate sales was buoyed by growing investor interest in the Chattanooga market, especially for major apartment complexes. Eight of the 10 biggest property sales in the past year involved investment groups from outside of Chattanooga buying existing apartment complexes, including a record $63.1 million sale of the BlueBird Row Apartments behind the Chattanooga Choo Choo to an investment group in San Francisco.
Collectively, investors spend more than $250 million buying multi-family housing complexes in Hamilton County during the past year. Despite the addition of several thousand new apartment units in the county during the past three years, rental rates compared to property values are generally more favorable for investors in Chattanooga than in markets like Atlanta or Nashville.