Tennessee’s enormous growth momentum accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaulting Nashville’s real-estate market into the top slot for investors nationwide.
Home prices seemed to reach impossible highs over the past year, jumping a record 21% in July statewide year-over-year, according to CoreLogic.
That may be just the beginning. Investors are more bullish than ever on Tennessee markets going into 2022.
Nashville is first on the list of growing markets where investors want to park their cash, according to the 2022 ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate’ report, an influential analysis of U.S. housing markets by PwC and Urban Land Institute. Interested investors range from institutional buyers to individuals with small real-estate portfolios.
“We did hit what technically was a two-month recession, but it has been the fastest recovery on record,” said Jody Y. Moody, vice president of The Mathews Company and co-chair of ULI’s Capital Markets Action Council. “Nashville is on the leading edge of that growth.”
Tennessee’s popularity isn’t an accident, business leaders said. It’s the result of decades of work laying groundwork to expand the economic base into a diversified portfolio with strong capital incentives that are irresistible to companies and skilled workers.
Rising tax rates in historically top-tier markets spurred a trend of moves to low-tax areas like Tennessee before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then, COVID-19 work-from-home rules and local restrictions on public life increased interest in Sunbelt cities that are less accustomed to such high interest from wealthy investors than cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
All these trends created a synergy with what local leaders have long been preparing for with new civic anchors, said Janet Miller, CEO of Colliers Nashville.
“So many leaders here – public and private – laid down the framework for success starting 25 years ago,” Miller said. “We built an arena without a sports team which then led to the location of the Predators here. Having an NFL team is often a criteria for corporate headquarters relocations. We built a world-class symphony hall and a first class central downtown library. We invested in greenways. And we nurtured and embraced our music industry, which provides soul to the city.”
The 111-page ‘Emerging Trends’ report will be explored in-depth by local and national industry leaders at a public breakfast seminar on Nov. 11. Registration is available online at https://nashville.uli.org/events/detail/5076784D-F372-4362-9CAF-E5646CCC1E91/
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