— Return to Erika’s Website —

Not to brag.. but I put on my fancy pants this week, zipper and all.

In all seriousness, it’s been a busy week month, and the world is still trying to turn. I know we’re all exhausted from continuing to be full-time professionals, full-time parents and the additional role of full-time snack bar attendees and teachers for our children.

But I want to take a quick few minutes right now to keep you from stressing about anything Real Estate-related by putting Grassland happenings into perspective.

Let’s Talk

I’ve been catching up with quite a few Buyer & Seller client prospects, current clients and former clients via video messaging the past couple weeks. One of the themes I’m hearing more this week than last is “We may wait to sell our house until all this blows over.”

It’s true we’re seeing a considerable drop in home showings. Popular home-showing service, ShowingTime, used largely in Williamson County to book home showings for Real Estate agents, is reporting a 50% decrease year-over-year in the number of showings requested in Franklin and Brentwood. Showing requests in these two cities decreased from 2,159 in March 2019 to 1,080 in March 2020.

As I reported in my previous blog post, this isn’t all bad news. We Real Estate professionals are seeing quality buyers out there. Perhaps the decrease in showing requests reflects a weeding-out of the non-serious buyers, thanks to Covid19. Nonetheless, the lower number of showings is scary to Sellers. This is one of the reasons for a false perception among Sellers right now that our home values are also taking a hit. So let’s look at the data and how our market is *actually* performing.

March Movement

First, since we all like to look at pictures, let’s see a couple of the homes that sold here in March.

This 2,950 square foot Fieldstone Farms home sits right in the middle of our median price range for March 2020 residential sales in Grassland.

It sold for $527,500 after sitting on market for 70 days (though Grassland’s median days on market for March 2020 was 10.)

This next home pictured is the one that brought the highest price for Grassland during March 2020.

The estate nestled in Two Rivers is its own destination with more than 5,500 square feet of living Space on almost 7 acres. It’s in one of the most remote parts of Grassland, off of Del Rio Pike and Old Hillsboro Rd. It closed at an even $2 million dollars, after only being on the market 22 days!

Now to the Numbers

Our latest monthly performance indicators are out for March. As you recall, schools in our area started shutting down after the first week, WCS taking the lead. By the time the third week rolled around, Nashville was under a Stay Home order, which was part of a domino effect across the state and country.

But you’d never know this judging by the number of homes closed, zoned for Grassland Middle School.

March 2020:

• 32 homes closed
• Median year built: 1996
• $187/sf Median Sales Price
• 99.99% Median List Price/Sales Price Ratio (which means homes are selling within 99.99% of what they were listed for!)
• Median 10 Days on Market

March 2019:

• 34 homes closed
• Median year built: 1995
• $188/sf Median Sales Price (likely due to new construction sales, which took a hit in March 2020).
• 98.97% Median List Price/Sales Price Ratio
• Median 10 Days on Market

March 2018:

• 33 homes closed
• Median year built: 1998
• $180/sf Median Sales Price
• 97.41% Median List Price/Sales Price Ratio
• Median 14 Days on Market

This data shows comparable Days on Market here in Grassland year-over year. Also, our List-Price-to-Sales-Price ratio continues to improve — nearly 100% in March 2020. We’ve had almost a 4% increase in Sales Price per Square Footage here in the Grassland school zone since March 2018 while the number of closings remained consistent. This is among data showing our values, as of March 2020, were still holding strong.

I know what you’re thinking: Homes that closed in March were likely under contract in February, before all this Covid mess really started setting in. And that’s true. But so far, in April 2020, we’ve already Closed 27 homes, and many home closings happen on or near the last business day of the month. We currently have 41 homes that are Under Contract since March or earlier. To stay on par with April 2019 closings, we’ll have to close 16 of these, which is absolutely possible. I’ll post an update on whether we hit that mark in my next monthly recap post .

You’re Saying There’s a Chance

With the amount of demand we have in the Grassland area, I suspect will continue to see plenty of market movement in the coming weeks, especially as Stay Home orders are lifted in TN. And because of this reason, our home values will continue to stand steady. We still have more buyers moving here than we have homes for sale, plus historically low interest rates, which are both HUGE helps. I elaborated more on my analysis behind this in one of my other recent posts.  However, we should re-calibrate our expectations on the number of Days on Market for our April stats. Being shut down for all of March has likely elongated Days on Market for March listings.

Another thing to keep watch for is what’s expected among Real Estate professionals to be a mad rush of Buyers heading back out there once these Stay Home orders are lifted in May. I mean, people just want to GET OUT and a lot of Buyers are ready to spend money again.

Bottom Line:

If you’re thinking of Selling, I would recommend you list sooner than you may have planned. We KNOW our Grassland home values are still strong right now. We KNOW homes are still being bought and sold here. Many times in Real Estate, opportunity is in the moment because the future is never promised.

Now, excuse me while I take an opportunity at this moment to change back into my happy pants. You know, the kind where zippers aren’t required.

— Return to Erika’s Website —

Want honest advice on what it takes to sell your home during these unprecedented times? I’ve got you. Call, email or text me. I provide a free consultation to see what your home could sell for – or to get pre-approved to buy. ALL DONE VIRTUALLY! I’m a Grassland area resident, I’m a Platinum Award-winning Williamson County REALTOR® ranking in the top 2% and I specialize in helping my neighbors buy and sell homes!