Staff and wire reports

The Associated Press

Unsustainable home-price growth and an inventory surplus helped move Nashville into the top 10 markets for home buyers in the United States, according to a new report that provides further evidence of cooling demand in the area.

The most recent report, compiled by Realtor.com, ranks Nashville ninth among the top 10 markets for home buyers in the U.S., along with Albany, N.Y.; Chicago; San Antonio; Jacksonville, Fla., Riverside, Calif.; Los Angeles; Providence, R.I.; Dallas; and Tampa, Fla.

"The U.S. housing market has largely favored sellers over the last several years as a result of the record-breaking low inventory and red-hot demand that led to intense competition and fast-rising home prices. However, we're now seeing some metros buck this trend," Danielle Hale, realtor.com®'s chief economist said in an Associated Press report. "Slowing sales and growing inventories have caused months supply to increase in many markets across the country.

"These buyer-friendly markets are areas where inventory already outpaces sales relative to other large markets and they are continuing to move in a buyer-friendly direction, but they're not the only areas trending this way," Hale said.

Realtor.com narrowed its analysis to markets in which the pace of sales relative to inventory are slowing down and below the national average; inventories of available homes are growing; and sales prices are building slower than the U.S. average or completely declining.

NASHVILLE REAL ESTATE:Middle Tennessee's housing market is cooling. Here's what you need to know.

According to the realtor.com research, top markets are experiencing an active inventory growth at 14.6 percent pace, year-over-year, which is far higher than the national average at 4.0 percent.

The Tennessean previously reported that the number of unsold Nashville homes as of March was 11,510, which is the largest since January 2015.

"These 10 housing markets are already more buyer-friendly when looking at the availability of homes for sale in different markets, however, the mismatch between what's available and what buyers want has led to lukewarm demand and lackluster sales," Hale said in the AP report. "As inventory continues to grow in these markets, buyers will see more options, and should ultimately gain more bargaining power."

Due to the decreased demand and upped inventory, sales prices have hit a stopping point in the top 10 markets.

The research shows that sales prices have grown by 1.4 percent, on average, among these 10 markets, a decline from the 8.4 percent sales-price growth in 2018 and 6.3 percent growth from 2017.

Additionally, sales of homes have declined by 5.5. percent on average, year-over-year.

Nashville's home appreciation has continued to cool since last fall, giving home buyers an advantage throughout decreased demand.

The research shows that in areas such as Nashville, Dallas and San Antonio, the slowing has been caused by market-wide overheating.

Over the last three years, home prices in those three markets increased by 21%, while average home prices nationally have increased 13 percent.

Tennessean reporter Andrew Wigdor contributed to this report and is available at awigdor@tennessean.com and on Twitter @andrew_wigdor