Chattanooga home prices continued to jump in the first quarter of 2021 as the inventory of homes on the market shrunk to record lows during the pandemic, while more families and investors are eager to buy into Chattanooga’s residential market.
The median price of homes sold in Chattanooga during the first three months of the year jumped 17.5% from the same period a year earlier, rising to a record high median price of $232,300 for a typical single-family home.
“Cheaper mortgage rates have allowed homebuyers to pay more money with the same monthly payment than in the past, and we’re seeing an influx of buyers from other parts of the country who still see Chattanooga as a very affordable market,” said Robert Backer, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Pryor Realty Inc. and president this year of the Greater Chattanooga Realtors association.
Chattanooga home prices were up by an average of $34,600 per single-family house this year compared with a year earlier. But the median price of Chattanooga homes was still 27.2% below the nationwide average in the first quarter and well below nearby markets such as Nashville, Atlanta and Huntsville, Alabama.
Rated as a top city for remote workers to live in by both MakeMyMove and PC magazine, Chattanooga is drawing interest from many workers fleeing bigger, more expensive markets. That helped boost single-family home sales by 25% in the first quarter above the record-high volume of a year ago, according to data from the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors’ multiple listing service.