Middle Tennessee - Rutherford County TN - Residential Home Sales Market Statistics: A Comparison of Normal Sales versus Short Sales and Foreclosures in August 2009

According to the data I researched in the Middle Tennessee MLS (RealTracs) as of 9/1/2009, the following Market Statistics paint a troubling picture for the 3 main cities/towns in Rutherford County Tennessee:

Active Listings

• Murfreesboro TN -109 out of 1,322 Active Listings (or 8.25%) are shown as Short Sale or Foreclosure listings.
• Smyrna TN - 51 out of 389 Active Listings (or 13.11%) are shown as Short Sale or Foreclosure listings.
• LaVergne (or La Vergne) TN - 59 out of 291 Active Listings (or 20.27%) are shown as Short Sale or Foreclosure listings.

Pending Sales

• Murfreesboro TN -32 out of 242 Pending Sales (or 13.22%) are shown as Short Sale or Foreclosure listings.
• Smyrna TN - 11 out of 60 Pending Sales (or 18.33%) are shown as Short Sale or Foreclosure listings.
• LaVergne (or La Vergne) TN - 29 out of 61 Pending Sales (or 47.54%) are shown as Short Sale or Foreclosure listings.

As you can see in all the towns above the % of Short Sales and Foreclosures is high for both Active Listings and Pending Sales. However, the worst part is that when looked at as a percentage of Pending Sales the Short Sale and Foreclosure share of Pending Sales is relatively high when compared to percentage of Active Listings to the tune of 50%+. This means that regular (i.e. non Short Sale and Foreclosure) listings will have a difficult time selling as a large share of Pending Sales are lower priced distressed properties.

For Murfreesboro and Smyrna the % of Pending Sales that are Foreclosures and Short Sales remained about the same as last month, but for La Vergne the % increased from 34% to 47.54%. While the real estate markets in Murfreesboro TN and Smyrna TN are definitely hurting and prices are declining, the La Vergne real estate market is in really bad shape.