Is Nashville Booming Or Just Seeing Sustained Growth?
If you call Nashville's growth a boom, you're a pessimist, since booms usually end badly. Optimists, on the other hand, point out the region is seeing sustained growth, supported by the fundamentals. Find out which position our speakers take at the first-ever Nashville State of the Market event July 19 at the Doubletree by Hilton in Downtown Nashville.
“In Nashville, demand outweighs supply for almost everything, and when you factor in the population growth that's forecast for our region, it's hard to make the case that the boom isn't sustainable," Spectrum | Emery VP David Wells, who will be a speaker, tells us.
That said, he's bullish on office more than residential properties, given the number of apartment units delivered over the past several years. "Office inventory continues to lag behind demand, especially for Class-A office space in the top-performing submarkets, such as Cool Springs and Midtown.”
Cushman & Wakefield regional director of research Nathan Edwards, who tracks Nashville closely, points out job growth here has been particularly strong in the office-using sectors, with professional and business services adding 6,600 new positions and financial services creating more than 1,350 jobs during the past 12 months. Other sectors have been growing as well.
"Nashville’s robust job growth has brought the unemployment rate down to a very healthy 3.2%," Nathan notes. "Among metropolitan areas with labor forces in excess of 500,000 workers, only Austin and Grand Rapids (MI) have lower unemployment rates. Robust absorption, coupled with a lack of quality options available in the office sector, has driven value and rents skyward and vacancy into the basement."
Find out more at our Nashville State of the Market on July 19—only a week from now—beginning at 7:30am at the Doubletree by Hilton in Downtown Nashville. Sign up here.
