Nashville ranked nation's hottest single-family housing market

• Orlando, Fla., and Fort Worth, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas were the other top five hottest single-family markets.
• Nashville also posted the highest score in terms of economic prospects based on job and population growth.
• For the second quarter, local home sales increased 7.4 percent year-over-year.
• Annual local home price growth was 12 percent for the recent second quarter, marking improvement for 20 straight quarters.

Nashville has the hottest single-family housing market in the U.S., according to a report that shows nation-leading annual growth in home sales and price appreciation for the recent second quarter.

The No. 1 ranking by online real estate marketplace Ten-X Research of Irvine, Calif.., is also based on local growth in population, wages and jobs plus overall state of the economy. 

“In all of these areas, Nashville’s doing far better than national averages,” said Rick Sharga, a Ten-X executive vice president, citing as example last year’s 2 percent local population growth being three times the nation’s average. “Unless there’s something unforeseen that disrupts the economy like a major employer moves out, it’s really well-positioned for the next few years.”

Orlando, Fla., and Fort Worth, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas, were the other top five hottest single-family markets also based in part on annual home price growth and annual home sales growth. 

Cost of living also rising at nation's fastest rate

A separate study by personal finance website GoBankingRates, meanwhile, showed Nashville’s cost of living rose the fastest nationwide over the past year with the amount needed to live here comfortably up $9,135. It takes a salary of $70,150 to live in Nashville today, the report said, citing housing costs among factors with the median list price of a home rising almost 30 percent to nearly $340,000 from April 2015 to 2017. 

Ten-X’s Top Single-Family Housing Markets Summer 2017 report, however, said that Nashville's housing affordability remains favorable even as prices have surged almost 40 percent beyond their prior peak, which it suggests that prices can continue to progress without pressuring buyers, “The Metro also carries modest downside risks as prices only fell moderately during the housing bust,” that report read.

Previously, Nashville had been in the top 10 in Ten-X’s tracking, but ranked No. 1 for the first time in the most recent quarter. For the second quarter, local home sales increased 7.4 percent year-over-year with price growth of 12 percent to mark improvement for 20 straight quarters.
    
Among the 50 largest U.S. housing markets, Nashville posted the highest score in terms of economic prospects based in part on jobs and population growth. Education, health care and leisure and entertainment are among growing sectors with local employment up 4 percent year-over-year. 

Reach Getahn Ward at gward@tennessean.com or 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.