Prop values last 5 years (Memphis, Nashville-Davidson: houses, unemployment rate, neighborhood)

[mrs1885]

We bought our house here 5 years ago. Paid a good bit under $100k. We've put a lot of work into it - ripped out all of the electrical wiring and put in a new panel and wires, installed central heat and air which it had never had, replaced all the floors to the joists on the back half of the first florr, gutted and renovated the first floor bath, etc - but still have a big to do list before we even think of formally putting it on the market.

We were looking on RDC last night at houses and land in the area we are wanting to move to. Found a house that's exactly what we want, where we want. So out of curiosity, I started looking at homes in my current area to get an idea of the CompSet. I was shocked when I saw prices.

Not believing what I'd found, I e-mailed my mother (a realtor) and asked her opinion. She did whatever magic realtors do and found that what I'd found is about what our CompSet is. If that's correct, the value of our house has doubled in 5 years.

Now that said, we have put in a ton of work (and money) into this house which I know raised the value a good bit. But I can't imagine what we did raised the value that much. We've put in maybe $30,000. I can't imagine that money increased the value of our house by about $70,000.

Has anyone else seen prices go up this much?

[jguillot]

You're lucky. My home in the Sacramento, CA area has depreciated in value by over $225,000 in the last 3 years.

[hiknapster]

The short answer is "no." In the Knox County area, we have held our own, which is typical for this area. It's kind of a "slow and steady wins the race" kind of place, where we lumber along, never taking huge hits but not seeing huge bubbles, either. I'd have to roll out the stats but we haven't changed that much, overall, in five years, which is actually a good thing.

Bear in mind that Knox County has the best unemployment rate of all the larger metro areas and is second lowest for counties in the state, at 7 percent.

I bought over two years ago, but have lived in TN for five years. When we moved here, in October of 1985, prices had just increased a bit, but nothing like the bubble of swFlorida, as you know.*

When I bought in 2008, my net was about $113,000. I easily could get $145,000, but I got a screaming deal due to unusual seller circumstances. We have only done some nice cosmetic work to the kitchen.

Every house is different. Have about three agencies run your comps and see what they come up with. I say three because some agents will high-ball you to get the listing, although it is pretty rare, these days.

Like your mom, I'll take a look from afar and see what I get. Shoot me your acreage, square feet, beds, baths, garage and anything important you can think of.

Do you think you might have just got a really, really good deal when you bought the place? Did you have a sudden surge of building in your area? Industry move in? Schools move up the ranks pretty quickly? Anything unusual?

*Note: Mrs1885 and I are from swFlorida. She's a native, my husband is close, and I am not.

[mrs1885]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

The short answer is "no." In the Knox County area, we have held our own, which is typical for this area. It's kind of a "slow and steady wins the race" kind of place, where we lumber along, never taking huge hits but not seeing huge bubbles, either. I'd have to roll out the stats but we haven't changed that much, overall, in five years, which is actually a good thing.

Bear in mind that Knox County has the best unemployment rate of all the larger metro areas and is second lowest for counties in the state, at 7 percent.

I bought over two years ago, but have lived in TN for five years. When we moved here, in October of 1985, prices had just increased a bit, but nothing like the bubble of swFlorida, as you know.*

When I bought in 2008, my net was about $113,000. I easily could get $145,000, but I got a screaming deal due to unusual seller circumstances. We have only done some nice cosmetic work to the kitchen.

Every house is different. Have about three agencies run your comps and see what they come up with. I say three because some agents will high-ball you to get the listing, although it is pretty rare, these days.

Like your mom, I'll take a look from afar and see what I get. Shoot me your acreage, square feet, beds, baths, garage and anything important you can think of.

Do you think you might have just got a really, really good deal when you bought the place? Did you have a sudden surge of building in your area? Industry move in? Schools move up the ranks pretty quickly? Anything unusual?

*Note: Mrs1885 and I are from swFlorida. She's a native, my husband is close, and I am not.

Slow and steady is very comforting to me. After what happened in Naples I'm very cautious about prices sky rocketing.

Mom suggested having some local agents come in to do a CMA for us. We're just not at the point with the house that we're ready to put it on the market so it seems pointless unless we were going to sell right away. I'd rather keep doing the work to it through early spring and then have a few come in and take a peek. In the meantime I was just hoping for a very vague guesstimate on the market price. I was shocked to see what others in the area are going for.

I know we got a good deal. The house was vacant for about 15 years before we bought it. The couple had bought it hoping to do a flip, but the husband was diagnosed with cancer soon after the purchase. They did what they could but all their money went to his treatment. He battled for years and they wound up basically broke, so it just sat. He died so she put a new roof on it and listed it for next to nothing. While we were looking at it two other couples were looking too. We brought a home inspector with us and happily shared all the terrible news about the house. So haggled over price for a while and finally settled about 10k less than they'd asked. I think it was a good deal.

I'll send you the info. See what you can dig up. Thanks!

[hiknapster]

Send it on over! I'll come up with a guesstimate, too!

By the way, we moved here in October of 2005, not 1985. I wish. I would have probably had a very different life.

[mrs1885]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Send it on over! I'll come up with a guesstimate, too!

By the way, we moved here in October of 2005, not 1985. I wish. I would have probably had a very different life.

Yeh, me too!!!

Sent your way. Probably way more info than you need, but .....

[bluesky42day]

Good for you Mrs. 1885

Yes, I have seen that kind of jump happen here in my neighborhood in East Nashville, especially when work has been done to the property.

I purchased a newly flipped house in a "transitional" neighborhood in early 2007. Since everything was brand new I haven't done any real work to my house that would add value other than putting up a 6 foot privacy fence. The value of my transitional neighborhood has really boomed as a whole & I don't think it will be too long before I can double what I paid for it without doing a thing.

Location. Location. Location.

Courtney

[Puttmossman]

Kiplinger's magazine had a timely article regarding this very subject in this months issue.

Property values Since the Peak (2006-2010)

Cleveland,TN +3.30%
Jackson,TN +1.30%
Johnson City, TN +7.50%
Knoxville,TN +2.80%
Morristown, TN -1.50%
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN -0.50%
Chattanooga, TN-GA +1.50%
Clarksville, TN-KY +10.20%
Memphis, TN-MS-AR -16.40%
Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA +9.10%

[creeksitter]

I think wht hppened is you got good value becuse it needed work. You aren't counting the value of the time you spent arranging for repairs, the hassle factor, design decisions etc. If you want to look at housing values you'll have to compare homes that were in the same condition before and after.