The Tennessean
Friday, May 19, 2006
Business booming for homes over $1M
Half-year sales surpass total for all of 2005
The spring more million-dollar-plus homes were sold in Williamson County than in all of 2005, continuing an upward trend.
Between Jan. 1 and May 1, 46 homes costing more than $1 million have sold, and 31 more were pending, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
Only 14 homes were sold for $1 million or more during that time period last year. In fact, 74 were sold in all of 2005. That’s three fewer that were sold or pending by the first of this month.
Overall in Williamson County, the number of closings in April (428) was 8 percent higher than April 2005.
“We’re just amazed at how well it has gone, even with the interest rates going up,” said Susan McKinney, president-elect of the Williamson County Association of Realtors and a Realtor with Crye-Leike’s Franklin office. “(Higher interest rates) sometimes pushes people off the fence to buy sooner rather than later. The homes that are priced competitively and in good condition – they are not staying on the market long.”
The median home price for April 2006 increased by more than $22,000 from April of last year, according to the Realtor association. And the average home price increased even more, thanks to the large inventory of million dollar homes on the market.
As of Monday, 184 Williamson County homes costing $1 million or more were listed on the Realtracs Multiple Listing Service.
That’s about eight months’ worth of inventory, McKinney estimated, located in communities ranging from gated subdivisions such as Brentwood’s Governors Club; to The Brownstones, condominiums in downtown Franklin; to multi-acre estates throughout the county.
Realtors and builders say a combination of construction and land costs have pushed up the cost of many homes and added to the inventory of million-dollar homes in the county.
“The cost of land has increased so much that many of the new construction homes being built are ending up costing more than $1 million because of the lot crisis,” said Lisa Culp Taylor, a Realtor with Bob Parks Realty who is listing several homes for more than $1 million.” And the cost of construction is changing so quickly that the builders have to price accordingly.
Bill Akers, owner of Akers Custom Homes, noted that to build a new $1 million home in Williamson County today, the owner with often spend $300,000 on land and design work before any money goes into the actual construction of the home.
The 91 one-acre or less lots listed on the Multiple Listing Service Monday ranged from $79,900 to $495,000 in asking price.