Despite a year-end drop in housing sales, Chattanooga was the only market in Tennessee, Georgia or Alabama to show an increase in the median price of single-family homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that the median home price in Chattanooga rose 3.2 percent in the past year to $124,600, reversing a 3-year decline in local home prices.
The fourth quarter gain in Chattanooga easily exceeded the modest 0.2 percent yearly increase in home prices nationwide, although the median price of homes in Chattanooga still remained 27 percent below the U.S. median price of $170,600.
“Home prices have begun to stabilize or even increase slightly, so hopefully the worst of the decline is behind us,” said Jennifer Grayson, president of the Chattanooga Association of Realtors.
Home prices rose despite a drop in sales in the fourth quarter for Chattanooga Realtors. In the final three months of 2010, Realtor-assisted sales in the Chattanooga area totaled 1,258 homes, down nearly 18 percent from a year ago.