From The Tennessean

Bright spots are obvious in market's harsh year
 - Top-selling subdivisions for 2009 offered price diversity, choice



By Nancy Mueller • FOR WILLIAMSON A.M. • January 15, 2010

In a year marked by economic recession and continued job loss, the Williamson County neighborhoods with the most real estate sales in 2009 were the big ones with diverse price points: Westhaven, McKay's Mill and Fieldstone Farms.



According to the Williamson County Association of Realtors, these three exceeded sales of 75 homes each during 2009, putting them at the top of the heap, sales wise. The sprawling, 2,115-home Fieldstone Farms, on Hillsboro Road, was built out several years ago, so the sales activity there is composed completely of existing homes. Broker Diane Christian of Keller Williams sold about a dozen houses in Fieldstone Farms last year and has five listings in the neighborhood now. She said there are several reasons this subdivision remains popular with buyers.

"One reason that it's popular is its incredible location," she said, which is near downtown Franklin. "Then you have diversity of styles of homes and price ranges. "There are little communities within the larger community," she added, "And there is a lot of nearby neighborhood shopping, whether you need to get to the dry cleaners, the grocery, the hair salon. It just has a great quality of life, with an elementary school that is within walking distance."

As of this week, there were 44 homes listed for sale on Realtracs.com in Fieldstone Farms, and they ranged in price from $182,000 to $699,000.

Factors aid Westhaven


This fall there will be another Franklin neighborhood that offers walking distance to an elementary school: the ever-growing Westhaven development off Highway 96, west of Franklin.
Ninety homes were sold in Westhaven in 2009, according to Jim Cheney, who is vice president of communications for the developer, Southern Land Co.
Cheney said about 62 of those sales were new homes, "so resale activity was good, but so were new home sales, a point we are very proud of, given the context of the larger market and the demands of the economy."

Westhaven offers diverse housing products, too, from condos and town houses to very large single-family homes.

"Southern Land feels very fortunate to have performed this well in 2009," Cheney said. "We attribute it to a number of factors: strong builders, classic design and architecture, and they deliver of some pretty significant amenities such as the golf course and Harris Teeter."
The grocery opened in the fall in a spot directly adjacent to Westhaven.

Southern Land also began offering an "empowerment program" to buyers in late 2009 that offers a 5 percent discount off the builder's price that can be applied by the buyer toward other expenses.

Price guarantee offered

McKay's Mill delivered 24 new homes to buyers last year, according to Bridget Wright, the marketing director for The Jones Co., which is the builder and developer of this large neighborhood on the east side of Franklin. Those new home sales along with resales pushed McKay's Mill into the top-selling category.
"We did what I suspect most of the builders who 'survived' 2009 did, and that is make our organization even more efficient," Wright said.


He said the company spent time in 2009 on staff training and improvements in processes.
The company also began offering buyers a "purchase price guarantee" for five years on the resale value of their new homes. Wright said the company believes that the program "tips the scales in our favor" when buyers are comparing the products of different builders. There were 32 homes listed for sale in McKay's Mill, ranging from condos to executive homes, with prices from $269,962 to $650,000. The Jones Co. is still building condominiums in Park Run, in Boardgate, which has single-family homes from the $340,000s, and in Hadden Hall, which has executive homes from the $460,000s.

Discounts help drive sales

A group of subdivisions had sales figures following just behind these big three neighborhoods. According to the WCAR, they had sales of between 20 and 37 homes.
At the top of this list is Silver Stream Farm in Nolensville, where 33 new homes were built and sold last year. "How did we do it? We got our prices down to rock bottom, and we kept them there," said developer Tom Moon. "We reduced prices of the homes, and we reduced prices on the lots, by at least 30 percent."

Silver Stream homes range from the low $200,000s to $375,000 compared with the original plan for home prices in the $500,000s. The neigborhood will have 325 houses when it is completed.
With a swimming pool, clubhouse and 80 acres of walking trails, plus proximity to the new Nolensville Elementary School, Silver Stream is attracting a lot of young families.

Other high-selling subdivisions last year, according to WCAR, were Cherry Grove and Ridgeport in the southern end of the county; Sullivan Farms, Franklin Green, the Villages of Clovercroft and Avalon in Franklin; Ballenger Farms in Nolensville and Temple Hills in northwest Williamson.