Why are home prices so inexpensive in Chattanooga? (Knoxville, Ooltewah: sales, real estate)

[trobesmom]

I've been looking on the real estate sites and notice that homes are very affordable in the Chattanooga area. Is this because it is just a very inexpensive place to live, or are there other reasons? Thanks for any input you may have.

[u4icmusic]

Supply and Demand. It runs the American economy. Prices are inching upward though with the announcement of the new VW plant.

[trobesmom]

I've been reading that there is a pretty bad crime rate in the Chattanooga area also? Could this have something to do with home prices??

[etta]

There are fair priced houses here. But every house I've looked at that is a seriously really really cheap has turned out to be in a very undesirable location...such as baaaad neighborhood or behind an industrial building/warehouse or on a very busy road. I can't speak for the burbs as I'm only looking at houses within a 5 mile radius of downtown.
So far I've learned a bit just by driving & walking extensively in all the neighborhoods that have affordable houses near downtown....

North Shore---is super safe & a great location but it is a bit harder to find a house

St. Elmo---is relatively safe(with many really safe areas) & the Houses are very Historic/Charming

Southside---is kinda safe & getting safer but it is near a chicken plant. ewww!

Highland park/orchard knob---is pretty sketchy but there are better parts (the closer you get to downtown & in around Bailey & McCallie). The houses are amazing/historic & there's lots of renovating going on(with houses like these in such a good location I think it's only gonna get better) The closer the houses are to the east the cheaper they are & for a reason(so don't get excited like I did)!!

Alton Park---is off limits. Just don't look at houses there. This is just my opinion. Maybe there better parts of it I haven't found. The two days I explored there were prostitutes wandering about in the daylight & I got tons of weird/mean looks. Its not welcoming & many houses are boarded up/disrepair.

Near UTC---(I'm not sure of the neighborhood name,maybe fort wood) It seems a tad bit safer than highland park

Bushtown---I wouldn't live here & I'm one brave cookie. I fell in love with an amazing 1940's spanish style house in this hood but had to let it go.

Hope this is helpful!

[trobesmom]

Etta, thank you so much for taking the time to tell me about all the various areas. I really appreciate it. I was kinda thinking there was a reason some of the houses I saw were so inexpensive. Very nice of you to break if all down for me.

[dasmarian]

I posted this a while ago, but a lot of people found it helpful

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chatt...e-housing.html

I don't really know your budget or where you're from, but I can say that in general that smaller cities, especially in lower income areas of the county, have reasonable housing costs. Chattanooga is only the 4th largest city in TN. While Chattanooga has a lot to offer and is a wonderful city, the low number of people living here and modest average wage don't create enough demand for housing to drive prices dramatically upwards. The VW plant going in will however likely give a boost to the prices in the area. According to Zillow, the value of our home has increased several thousand dollars just over the last couple months. . . Here is our house on Zillow for all you voyeurs.

Our House

There are plenty of million+ dollar homes in Chattanooga if you look (ours not being one of them).

[Jon F Moss]

price is relative to where you are now. Having come from So FL where housing sky-rocketed only to start going to down when the market bottomed out, I can tell you that initially we were like kids in a penny candy store with our dollar bills.

Do your research, find a good RE agent to help educate you on the housing market and seriously consider renting first to get a real good feel for the area.

etta provided his/her assessment of some neighborhoods, but those are just opinions. You have to come and see for yourself.

Before actually coming here we were leaning heavily towards going to Knoxville. After a roadtrip to visiting both towns, we were able to make an informed decision.

We've read of a number of people looking to move here. They "cash out" with their house in the over-priced metro market, and run around saying "I've got 300/400/500k!!! What can I get for that??"

More than likely you don't need to spend that much. Don't quote me on this but the median home price around here is like 120k. Most reasonable folks around here aren't impressed with the big fancy houses - it just seems wasteful to have 2 people living in a 3500 square foot house.

And we don't care as much about what kind of car that a person drive. In fact you get bonus points for driving a more environmentally-friendly vehicle like a scooter or Subaru. Of course VW's are welcome too

Sorry, I'm starting to digress and will probably need to start a thread about this line of thought so thanks for getting me thinking and all the best in your quest!

[dasmarian]

I think that it might be difficult for someone on this board to recommend an area of town where you might find a safe, well-kept, desirable home in a good school system that has an area-average price of $120k.

On most "where should I live" posts I've read on this board over the last several months, the most recommended areas for people seeking housing are E Brainerd, North Chatt, Hixson, and perhaps Signal Mtn and Ooltewah. A quick search on Mellissadata.com by Zip Code:

ZIP Area # Reported/Sep 2008 Avg Sales Price
37405 N Chatt 51 $236,000
37421 E Brain 90 $188,000
37363 Ooltewah 89 $226,000
37343 Hixson 90 $179,000
37403 Downtown 20 $202,000
37377 Sig Mtn 41 $280,000

I would suggest that for areas most recommended on this board, $220k is a closer average price.

Perhaps blanket statements about the general opinions of the community might really only reflect a particular poster's opinion, social class, or values and what they think is appropriate, even if it is portrayed as the general opinion. In many cases, these comments simply gives away a single person's socioeconomic group and are not in any way grounded in fact.

[u4icmusic]

$120K will most likely not get you what you want in a safe home with good schools, except for maybe in Eastridge, but I'm not sure about the schools there. Plan on spending $250,000 and up for a truly nice neighborhood without the typical problems found in areas with lower-priced housing. I think the reports of crime here are for specific areas near downtown, so I wouldn't discount the whole area due to some crime hotspots.

[rxlynn]

Originally Posted by trobesmom

I've been looking on the real estate sites and notice that homes are very affordable in the Chattanooga area. Is this because it is just a very inexpensive place to live, or are there other reasons? Thanks for any input you may have.

It seems to me to be somewhat school driven. We are considering re-locating from the Atlanta area, and I am really surprised at the high prices I've seen in my research. We initially thought that our money from the house here would go a long way in Chattanooga, but we have children and so are finding that for the best school districts, the money doesn't go quite so far.