New choice homes can be found in all price points

By Nancy Mueller
FOR WILLIAMSON A.M.

New residential construction in Williamson County slowed to a trickle months ago and builders have continued to offer price cuts on their new homes, but there is still plenty of new housing inventory.

For those who have their hearts set on buying a brand-new house here, there are still plenty of options in Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville and Spring Hill, though perhaps not as many choices as a buyer would have had two years ago.

"The inventory is definitely down because the builders just are not building specs," said agent Dick Williams of Crye Leike in Brentwood.

It has been nearly two years since local builders began offering price cuts and sales incentives such as new cars and free TVs with their finished houses.

Over time, the forces of the recession have put a dent in the inventory of new housing in Williamson County communities, but they certainly have not wiped it out.

In Franklin alone, there were 189 new houses for sale listed on Realtracs.com the first week of September; there were 102 in Brentwood, 70 in Nolensville and 59 in Spring Hill (Williamson County side).

"That probably would have been 200 new homes in Spring Hill two years ago," Williams remarked.

But with 59 choices just on the Williamson side of Spring Hill, that's a lot to browse, with the prices ranging from $189,900 to $450,000.

Among the neighborhoods to shop are Autumn Ridge, Cherry Grove's phase 2, Campbell Station and Wades Grove. Each of those subdivisions had nine new houses listed for sale, with prices ranging from $194,900 (Wades Grove) to $450,000 (Autumn Ridge).

In Nolensville, the prices on new homes range from $201,400 to $499,900. Some neighborhoods to shop include Bent Creek, which had 18 new houses for sale, Nolen Park, which had nine, Silver Stream, Ballenger Farms, Burkitt Place and Benington.

In Brentwood, there are very few new houses for less than $500,000. There were only five to be found, including two in Berkley Walk, two in Willomet and one in Courtside at Southern Woods.

There were 41 new homes listed between $501,000 and $800,000 and an additional 56 listings priced from $801,000 and up.

The biggest inventories by neighborhood can be found in Windstone, which had 16 new houses for sale, and Annandale, which had 12.

The rest of the new houses in Brentwood are scattered around in smaller numbers. Willomet, Taramore, Glenellen and Magnolia Vale are some neighborhoods where there are smaller clusters of new houses to see.

In Franklin, the Westhaven neighborhood is a person's best single place to shop for a new home because there are a whopping 40 new houses for sale there, ranging from $250,000 townhouses to $1.19 million single-family residences.

Other Franklin neighborhoods with new-house inventories to shop include Avalon, with 18 houses at prices from $309,990 all the way to $7.4 million, and Henley, with 13 new homes priced from $549,900-$739,900.

Ladd Park and Hurstbourne Park each had six new homes and the Village of Clovercroft had seven.

The new homes in Ladd Park were priced from $294,900 to $431,898; at Clovercroft prices ranged from $279,900 to $845,350 and at Hurstbourne from $539,900 to $749,000.

Tollgate Village in Thompson's Station is another neighborhood with some new inventory. There are 13 listings from $239,990 to $574,961.

Canterbury Close, which is also in Thompson's Station, has 10 new houses listed, and they are priced from $229,900 to $399,500.

Around the county, there are several new neighborhoods that are growing slowly and have just a few new homes for sale, such as Valle Verde in Cool Springs, which has two new houses. One is listed at $810,900 and the other priced at $999,900.

The Sonoma subdivision in Brentwood has four houses for sale and, to the south in Franklin, the Chardonnay neighborhood has five homes for sale. Both of these developments are by Turnberry Homes and are priced from about $500,000 to $700,000.

How the recession will affect the local market's future is yet to be seen, but the trend toward one-story living continues to gain ground.

There were 27 new homes for sale in Williamson County that are single-story floor plans and an additional 33 that are "one story and a half" which is typically a house with only a bonus room and perhaps a bedroom and bath upstairs.

Houses offering single-story living can be found at nearly all the price points and locations, from Willovale in Spring Hill to Kyles Creek in Fairview, from Bent Creek in Nolensville to Annandale in Brentwood.

Brentwood is the hardest place to find one-story or story-and-a half houses, but the developer of Kings Crossing is advertising such homes there, and the only new house listed for sale in Tuscany Hills during Labor Day weekend happened to be an almost-finished, 5,067-square-foot house in a cul de sac with four of its five bedrooms located on the main level.