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I sit here typing, facing a window that looks over my sunny back yard. It’s a quiet weekday in my house while the kids are in school, and I marvel at the spring-like feeling of the outdoors, yet the look of a bare-tree winter. I watch a hawk nearby gathering sticks in its beak as it flies and builds a nest atop the highest branch in this 60-degree weather.

The wind blows softly. It doesn’t feel like January, as far as the weather AND Real Estate are concerned. This is not a bad thing for me. It’s just… different.

And while I can’t begin to explain the unusual January weather, I’ll take a stab at filling you in on this busy January in Real Estate with a few tids-bits that may blow your mind.

What We’re Seeing

Right now, it’s buyers Buyers BUYERS. There are so many buyers out there right now and not enough homes for sale. Sure, it’s January and we’ll see more homes popping up in the Spring. But I imagine we’ll also continue to see more buyers come out as well. It’s due to a couple of things, mostly to a shortage of inventory that I discussed in my 2020 Real Estate Predictions post earlier this month.

If you’re a potential Seller, consider this: Your home is among your life’s biggest investments. And you have an opportunity to cash in now. Do not leave any money on the table – which means do not handle your home sale without a professional!

These aren’t just any buyers we’re talking about. A lot of today’s buyers are educated, come with larger budgets, from states with higher taxes and they’re getting low interest rates right now in this economy. This means, the homes they’re likely looking for are at or above Williamson County’s average sales price on MLS, which in 2019, hovered around $628,523.

Why

I think The Why really hit “home” for me this summer when I heard the staff at Williamson, Inc. talk about how dramatically Williamson County is growing, and the efforts our leadership is making to keep it going that direction.

Williamson, Inc. is the county’s Chamber of Commerce and Office of Economic Development. I had a meeting with them in August as part of a Williamson County Association of Realtors program. This was right as word started to spread that Mitsubishi was moving its headquarters to Franklin, adding about 150 jobs to the local workforce.

Staffers in this meeting talked about the recruitment of company headquarters as a top priority to the county because, in their words, those jobs are the last to be eliminated or downsized in a rough economy. So this strategy is an effort to insulate us here in Williamson County should we see another 2007-like recession.

And listen to this: At that particular moment, they told us Williamson County is in conversation with at least 40 other companies to plant headquarters here as well.

Back to Today

The news of Mitsubishi’s relocation was made official in November. They’re already staffing in Cool Springs as they await their building construction completion. And this is just ONE example of economic and current events here impacting our Real Estate market.

For the out-of-towners relocating to Williamson County, whether it’s due to employment, taxation or family reasons, it’s a race to find the perfect home in their budget on their timeline (which is almost always yesterday).

Those of us already living here and just wanting to move around are perhaps in a more competitive marketplace than ever.. and we feel it.

In my next blog post, I explain the price increases we’re seeing because of all this… and how much of a jump this is creating in our average price per square foot year-over-year. (Hint: This, too, will blow your mind.)

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I’m a Grassland area resident… I’m a Williamson County, TN Realtor®… and I always offer a complimentary, no commitment, no pressure meeting to see what your home could sell for. I love helping my neighbors buy and sell homes!