Memphis Real Estate Market News

As we are deep into this buyer’s market now, everyone is looking for signs of stabilization. Although no one really expects major changes in the housing market over the next few years in terms of major appreciation, there appears to be some smaller market cities that fare better than others. Memphis TN is one of those markets and has been named as the fourth best metropolitan area based on Case-Shiller Index figures. Another source, Moody’s Economy.com, has also forecast the ten best and ten worst markets for home appreciation between 2009 and 2013. Since the Memphis real estate market has been known for its lack of major swings in pricing up or down, it has placed the Memphis homes market in the top ten markets for appreciation….Listed as number four.
This all sounds good for sellers in the sense that a market turn around for values may be close at hand. On the other side of the coin, and good news for buyers, is that36% of Memphis home listings took a price decrease in September, which is the highest percentage on a list of the 50 largest cities. This information is based on data compiled by Trulia Inc, a real estate research firm. The average price reduction for Memphis homes was 9%. In dollar terms, that depreciated the homes values by about $27 million. Overall, Memphis residential real estate has seen a 24% increase in price reductions between June and October, the seventh highest of the fifty cities being watched on Trulia’s research during that time frame.
What does this all mean? I guess we have to keep watching. Rates are still very good, home prices are down, but unemployment is close to an all time high for the last thirty years. Which way are we going?