The Tennessee real estate market continues to face mixed signals during the month of April, as two of the largest urban centers in the state have received conflicting evidence from different real estate indicators. According to an April 26, 2010 article in the Nashville Business Journal, “Home prices experienced their first annual increase in more [than] three years in February – but the good fortune was not shared in the Nashville area, according to data released today by First American CoreLogic. In the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin area, home prices in February declined 3.97 percent, including distressed sales, a slight improvement over the 4.21 percent decline witnessed in January, according to FACL.” The piece, composed by Eric Snyder, continued to say that “Excluding distressed sales, prices declined 1.57 percent in February, compared to a 2.46 percent decline in January. First American CoreLogic is projecting that Nashville-area home prices, including distressed sales, will drop 1.26 percent over the next 12 months.”

Better news for Tennessee homes for sale was reported by an April 29, 2010 article in the Memphis Business Journal, which found that “Foreclosures on residential properties in the first quarter for the Memphis metropolitan area fell 19 percent compared to a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc.’s Q1 2010 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report. The year-over-year drop was in line with many other major metro areas.” The piece continued to state that “Compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, the number of foreclosures fell 8 percent. For the three years end[ing] March 31 there were 3,749 properties with a foreclosure filing in the eight-county metropolitan area. That was one filing – either a default, notice of trustee sale or notice of foreclosure sale – for every 148 housing units in the area.”

Still, remaining foreclosures have deflated the values of some Tennessee real estate, according to an April 9, 2010 article in The Commercial Appeal, which found that “House values fell more in the Memphis area than in other large city in the nation December through March, according to a company that provides data for real estate valuation…Forty-three percent of sales in the eight-county Memphis metropolitan area involved lender-owned houses.”

Like many cities in the Sunshine State, Tampa has been hit hard by the recession in the United States as the Tampa real estate market has fallen, with home values plunging and foreclosures skyrocketing. The market may have been overheated before, spurred on by speculation, which has contributed to its fall in prices.

However, all is not bleak. The market for real estate in Tampa seems to be on the rebound as of late. According to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, there were 1,131 homes sold in October, up from just 876 the year before, many likely spurred on by the government stimulus-rebate program for home buyers. Condo sales volume was up too, as were villa and townhome sales.

However, prices are still lagging on homes for sale in Tampa. The average sales price of a residential home sold in October was $170,932, down from $205,410 in 2008. Condo prices were down by around $34,000, townhomes were down by around $36,000 and villas were down by $38,000 — great news for buyers but not so good for sellers.

And the St. Petersburg Times reported that sales in the Tampa area in November were up by more than 50% in the month of November, as compared with the previous year’s figures. Mortgage default rates were still high, with October giving the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area a 15% 90-day-plus delinquency rate, the highest of 2009, and a 9% foreclosure rate — also the highest of the year. As these homes are returned to the banks, the inventory available will continue to build up.

The Dallas real estate market seems to be recovering slowly, although there are still a number of challenges facing the Dallas-Fort Worth region. According to a  November 29, 2009 article from the Denton Record-Chronicle, home foreclosures have decreased in the most recent year. the piece, composed by Candace Calisle, noted that “Fewer homes were posted for foreclosure this year in Denton County compared with last year, according to a recent study conducted by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. Denton and Dallas counties were the only two in the 19-county study that showed decreased net foreclosure postings, said George Roddy Sr., president of the Addison-based listing service. ‘We got a pretty good indicator, which is, Denton is faring better than most of the other counties in the metro area,’ Roddy said.”

A relatively steady trend was reported for Dallas home sales and prices, according to a November 25, 2009 article in the Dallas Morning News. According to the piece, written by Steve Brown, “Dallas-Fort Worth home prices held almost steady in the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index – down 1.2 percent from a year ago. It was one of the smallest annual declines in more than a year in the closely watched index of home prices around the country. September prices were down 0.7 percent from August, ending a six-month string of month-over-month gains…Nationwide, prices fell 9.4 percent in September from a year earlier in the 20 cities Case-Shiller tracks. The numbers continue to show gains from earlier in the year, analysts said. North Texas home prices are about 7 percent higher in the Case-Shiller index than they were at the bottom of the market in February.”

A November 24, 2009 article in the Dallas Business Journal took a slightly different angle on real estate in Dallas. According to the piece, “Home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are down 1.2 percent in the third quarter, but North Texas homeowners are faring much better than those in other U.S.-based cities, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s S & P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report. Only Denver has had a price decline as slight as the drop experienced in Dallas. Most other American cities experienced declines of 3.3 percent or more during the third quarter, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report.”