CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – In a recent article, Fortune listed Clarksville, TN amongst 40 housing markets that could see a decline in the near future, predicting that Clarksville home prices could drop as much as 20 percent.
Clarksville’s housing market has been been booming, drawing attention from publications like Opendoor, who listed Clarksville as one of the country’s hottest zip codes.
Fortune’s article uses data from Moody Analytics to predict a drop in housing values for many cities across the U.S. within the next 12 months due to a currently overvalued market. The article places Clarksville in the top 40 overvalued markets, placing the overvaluation at an estimated 48%. Other cities on the list include but are not limited to Boise, ID; Morristown, TN; Dalton, GA; and Asheville, NC.
Outside money
Christian Black, 2021 President of the Clarksville Association of Realtors, is skeptical of that prediction. Black told Clarksville Now that he thinks Fortune may not account for the number of buyers moving to Clarksville from higher value markets like California and Chicago.
“I don’t know that they’re taking into account baby boomers moving here from higher taxed states,” Black said. “I don’t think they’re taking into account the outside money that’s coming in. It’s not uncommon to get two or three closings in a row that are California buyers.”
He added that millennials who waited to join the housing market have now started house hunting, further fueling to the need for inventory.
“You got a lot of millennials that didn’t buy because they watched their parents in the crash of 2008. They delayed buying, and now they’re 30 to 32, getting married, and saying ‘I need to buy a house now.’ That’s a big bulk of the buyers on the market,” Black said.
Black said that a combination of COVID, the great recession and the rise of remote work have allowed more young people to move without losing their jobs in those areas. This is further compounded by increased access to high speed internet in rural areas.
Home sales increase in 2022
Last year, Black told Clarksville Now that Montgomery County was struggling to find the inventory to meet housing demands. While more homes are still needed, Black says that the inventory issue is beginning to improve.
According to Black, there have been 478 home sales so far in June of 2022. That is compared to 443 in that same time period last year. May also saw an uptick in homes compared to last year.
“Back before all the craziness happened, we’d have 350 sales in a month… I don’t know where all these buyers are coming from, but seven hundred and something buyers in a month is twice what we had before COVID.”
Black said he’d like to see local inventory reach approximately 2,200 homes to stabilize the market, but reaching those numbers could take a while.