According to the National Association of Realtors, Chattanooga area homes have seen less than a third of the national sales price decline in home value as compared with the rest of the country.

The median price of existing single family homes sold by Realtor – assisted transactions for the first quarter of 2009 dropped by 5.1% vs 15.6% nationally. Chattanooga is a very stable market. Its median sale price is $125,700.

Nationally, the median price of home sales in the second quarter fell $32,300 from 1 year ago to $174,100. The Atlanta market recorded a 23.3% drop over the last year, thus falling to $121,400, a figure below Chattanooga’s median sales price for the first time in record keeping history.

Memphis fell 8% to $121,000; Birmingham 6.9% to $152,300 and Knoxville fell 5.8% to $144,700. Georgia is among the top 10 states for foreclosures. For July, foreclosure notices across Georgia were up 10% from a year ago. The foreclosure rate is running 10% lower in Tennessee, however.

The bright spot as announced today by the Chattanooga Association of Realtors is that activity is greatly increased in the real estate market as interest rates are still low with inventory decreasing. The National Association of Realtors announced on Friday, August 21, that home resales grew in July at the fastest clip in a decade at a rate of 7.2% during the month. Distressed and foreclosed properties nationally – but not locally – amounted to 33% of that activity. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said, “We have now had 4 straight months of gains. It is not an isolated event but a very broad based recovery.”