NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As we finish out the year, News 2 spoke with a local real estate expert about how the Music City market fared in 2024 and what to watch out for in 2025.
After a turbulent few years in the real estate market during and after the coronavirus pandemic, Jeff Checko, the relocation director with The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage, said he thinks the Nashville real estate market in 2025 is headed on a path toward normalcy.
Checko pointed to a red hot seller’s market during the COVID and post-COVID era, followed by interest rates spiking in 2022 and a more balanced market in 2024.
“We saw signs of things returning to a typical seasonal market this year, with interest rates getting back into the sixes and the mid-sixes, and then it was kind of one step forward, one step back, one step forward, one step back again,” Checko said. “We’re hoping that in the coming year we get something kind of normal for the first time in about half a decade.”
This year, Nashville also saw some of its most aggressive rent concessions ever, according to Apartment Insiders, with some apartment complexes shelling out up to four months of free rent. Checko predicts rent prices are going to stay steady as incentives continue until we reach an “absorption phase” where there’s less inventory.
“That’ll allow people to raise rents, but with all the jobs coming into Nashville, you’re going to continue to see people being bold and adding units to our overall mix of unit count, especially in the downtown corridors,” he told News 2.
In terms of what we could see in 2025 and beyond, Checko said growth is still on the horizon.
“Everybody sees those social media pictures of the skyline from 2000 and 10 years ago and 15 years ago versus now and…the proof is out there in terms of projects that are coming and the jobs that are coming, that we’re going to see the same type of growth in the next 10 years, and some people — myself included — think we might see even more [growth],” he explained.
If you’re planning on making any real estate moves in 2025, Checko recommends keeping an eye on interest rates. The central bank has cut rates three times in 2024, but the Federal Reserve expects to lower rates at a slower pace next year.
