Chattanooga home buyers continued to push up home sales and prices last month, making 2016 a record year for Realtor-assisted sales in the region.
The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors (GCAR) said home sales were up 15.3 percent in November over the same month a year earlier, pushing overall sales in the first 11 months of the year to a record high of 8,650 residential units. Despite a declining inventory of homes on the market and rising home prices and mortgage rates, GCAR President Nathan Walldorf said home buyers are capitalizing on the improving economy and are eager to get ahead of what is expected to be even higher rates and prices next year.
“We really haven’t had a lag month all year,” Walldorf said. “We’ve had a great year in real estate.”
The median price of homes sold in Chattanooga jumped nearly 14 percent last month from a year ago to $199,490, but that was still more than 15 percent below the U.S. median price.
Nationwide, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that Americans bought homes in November in the fastest pace in nearly a decade despite declining inventories of homes on the market.