It turns out that “selling” a client on a community or town or city is remarkably like selling them a home. I come armed with statistics and numbers and comparative analysis and they basically ignore all those things and make their decision based on their gut instincts and feelings. I get it, I do. We need to have a serious case of the feel-goods to commit to buying a home and the same is true for committing to making that home in a given community or town. Good thing for me that I “sell” Williamson County and surrounding areas because I definitely have the numbers to prove that this is a thriving, growing market, but the town usually just sells itself with those rolling hills, bucolic settings, darling antique stores, awesome dining options and oodles and oodles of historic charm.
Humor me for a moment, though, as I spout some numbers. I promise we’ll get to the feel-good stuff in a paragraph or so. For the third year (yes, you read that correctly – year) in a row, we saw an increase in September home sales in Williamson County. In fact, a record number of homes (513 to be exact!) were sold in September, an increase of almost 12% from the previous year. Median home prices were up, too. Thompson’s Station saw a 26% increase in median sales price while Fairview saw a whopping 38% increase from the same time just one year previous. The majority of homes that sold in Williamson County were in my home, sweet, home-town of Franklin, but Brentwood saw its share of sales and topped the charts with an incredible $615,000 median sales price.
To offer a little more perspective, consider this, the highest recorded number of homes sold from January to September of any year was 3,821 in 2006. That is 4.4% lower than the same period this year. In 2006, there was only one month out of that year with a median price above $400,000. This year the market has seen eight months above that mark. September’s median price for the entire county was just a bit lower than that at $398,553, but that decrease is actually very good news for home buyers because we know that demand in the second and third quarters of the year is always higher than in the fourth quarter. Consumers should find less competition during the next couple of months and more opportunity to land one of the great homes on the market in Williamson County.
Okay, okay, if you’re reading blah, blah, blah, I understand. It really is all about our heart, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t give the brain some numbers to chew on. Enough of that, let’s get down to the fluffily, pretty stuff and why I know that when I offer Williamson County to a new home-buying client, it’s going to be an easy sell:
I challenge anyone to tell me that that picture doesn’t instantly ease stress and relieve the tension of busy days and lives. Well, when you make Williamson County your home, that picture is more than just a picture. It – or a vista much like it – is a stone’s throw away. This county is chock-full of incredibly preserved farms and green spaces. Residents spend their free time taking horse-back riding lessons, canoeing the Harpeth River and taking hikes beneath the leafy canopies at Radnor Lake.
My sweet downtown Franklin! Actually, this is a panoramic (and slightly mashed up) photograph, but it shows the charm and sense of history that pervades this amazing town. The downtown area is dotted with fantastic, locally owned and operated restaurants, antique stores that have been in business for decades and a recently refurbished theater where you can catch incredible live musical acts and theatre. If I have a client who’s on the fence about committing to Williamson County, I usually suggest a latte from “The Frothy Monkey” and a stroll down Main Street. By the time we get to the town square (actually a circle!), they’re almost always sold!
And while charm is nice, my clients also want to know that there are modern day amenities in their potential new home-town. Enter the sprawling shopping and dining mecca of Cool Springs, where you can bounce from Target to Whole Foods, stop for a workout at Perfect Barre, get a manicure at Sapphire and meet friends for lunch at Wild Ginger, or any of the other bazillion shops and restaurants that make this area so attractive to families of all ages and styles. Cool Springs has also seen tremendous office growth and with a maximum commute of 15 minutes from Cool Springs to pretty much anywhere in Franklin and Brentwood, well, that statistic feels really, really good.
There you have it, whether you’re looking for a town that offers excellent resale values, rising home prices and excellent schools or you need a town that will get your creative juices flowing, Williamson County is the place for you. If you’re ready to join us in our little utopia, give me a call. I’ll be happy to give you the grand tour and I’ll keep the number-crunching to a minimum!
