Staff Photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press - January 24, 2012. Crye-Leike president Harold Crye speaks about the housing outlook and how his real estate company did in 2011 during an annual realtor meeting early Tuesday morning.Crye-Leike results for 2015
Chattanooga offices* $407 million in sales* 2,482 units sold* Up 9 percent from previous yearCompanywide for all 115 offices* $5.7 billion in sales* 31,400 units sold* Up 5 percentTop performers* Jack Webb was the overall top producer* Susan Gregg Gilmore was the Rookie of the Year* Max Phillips and Jannis Sams in Cleveland were the top producer team
Interest rates may move higher and stock prices may be more volatile, but the head of the biggest real estate company in the MidSouth is convinced home sales in the region should grow this year back to the pre-recession peak of a decade ago.
Harold Crye, CEO of Crye-Leike Realtors, told Chattanooga agents Tuesday his company should enjoy another 5 percent gain in real estate sales in 2016 to top $6 billion for the first time since 2006.
"We're finally going to fully recover from the housing crisis we were in and get back to a normal selling market again," Crye said.
In Chattanooga, Crye-Leike Regional General Manager Dan Griess said the 267 agents in the seven area offices should sell about $430 million of real estate this year, up from the $407 million of sales in 2015.
"We're back on track and we're optimistic about the year ahead," Griess said.
Home prices and rental rates are likely to move higher, but at a slower pace than the increases over the past couple of years, Crye said.
Higher construction costs and a relatively tight inventory will keep prices moving higher. But the increases that have been more than double the overall inflation rate are unlikely to continue, Crye said.
Last year, the median sales price of homes sold in Chattanooga jumped by $10,000, or more than 7 percent, to $152,000. Although U.S. home sales remained below the pre-recession peak, Chattanooga Realtors sold a record number of homes during 2015.
The Federal Reserve Board is likely to move interest rates higher this year, although the number of increases in short-term rates the Fed may make in 2016 remains unclear, especially since equity and oil markets have moved lower so far this year and inflation rates remain below Fed targets.
But even with a slight increase in mortgage rates, Crye said job and income gains, combined with more young people moving into new homes, should boost overall home sales this year.
To keep pace with that growth, the Memphis-based Crye-Leike will continue to add more offices in the Atlanta region as well as in Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi, Crye said.
Crye-Leike, which currently has 3,075 agents across its Southeastern footprint, also expects to add more sales agents this year.
To help support its agents, Crye-Leike is investing in more training, social media, electronic document storage and other support services, company managers said Tuesday. Much of the cost of those services and the office expenses are funded with affiliate businesses, including a title business, mortgage insurance, property management and property insurance agencies.
"We're seeing growth in every region where we operate and these (title, insurance and management) businesses grew last year to new record levels," Crye said during the company's annual awards breakfast at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
Crye said that growth has come despite the company's withdrawal from such real estate listing businesses as Zillow and Trulia.
"Only half the properties for sale in markets like Memphis are listed on Zillow so why should people looking for everything on the market turn to those listing services?" Crye asked. "We want them to use our Crye-Leike app on their phone and turn to us for their real estate needs."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.