Bill Lewis

For The Tennessean

Being a $5 Uber ride from downtown Nashville is just one of the advantages Lee and Cassie Kebler have discovered since buying their home in Nashville’s rapidly emerging Woodbine neighborhood.

They also love the sense of community in the neighborhood, which is centered around Nolensville Road and includes an area south of downtown stretching from I-440 to beyond Thompson Lane. Having a new house with a large yard — a rarity in the heart of the city — is another plus.

“We may be the only downtown neighborhood that actually has yards,” said Lee Kebler. “We have a beautiful backyard.”

They feel fortunate to be in Woodbine. After losing one house to a buyer who paid above the asking price, they spotted their home off Foster Avenue while it was still under construction. They walked in and offered to pay the list price.

Since the Keblers found their house last year, Woodbine has been discovered by growing numbers of home buyers. Prices have begun to climb as a result.

On its list of the five Nashville neighborhoods with the highest increases in values last year, the Layson Group real estate agency ranked the combined Woodbine-Elm Hill neighborhoods as No. 2. Home prices went up an average of 29.6 percent. Only East Nashville’s Cleveland Park-McFerrin neighborhood had faster-rising prices.

Even so, home buyers who feel priced out of other urban neighborhoods, including 12 South and East Nashville, can still find more affordable new homes and renovations in Woodbine, said Benchmark Realtor TJ Anderson, who represented the Keblers.

For example, Anderson recently sold two new, four-bedroom, two-bath homes at 310 and 312 Lutie St. Each had a list price of $339,000, substantially less than they might have cost in some other neighborhoods.

“The same house, quality and size, for $100,000 less than in 12 South or East Nashville, at least for now. I don’t know how long it will stay that way,” he said.

Woodbine is especially attractive to millennials who want to be able to walk or take a short drive to destinations such as Flat Rock Coffee, 2640 Nolensville Pike. Istanbul Turkish restaurant, 2631 Nolensville Pike, is one of Lee Kebler’s favorite places.

“The best burger in town is a place you never heard of,” he said.

The opening of The Red Bicycle Coffee & Crepes, which originated in North Carolina and has a shop in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood, is proof that along with mom and pop shops, “branded Nashville” is discovering Woodbine, said Lee Kebler.

So have home buyers, said Keller Williams Realtor Jonathan Buntin. He recently sold a house on Morton Avenue, several blocks south of Thompson Lane, before it hit the market. The house, which was new construction, sold for about $340,000.

The emergence of Woodbine is part of a “natural progression” of neighborhood redevelopment southward from downtown to Wedgewood-Houston near the fairgrounds and farther along Eighth Avenue and Nolensville Pike, he said.

Like Eighth Avenue, Nolensville Pike will attract development of restaurants, apartments and condominiums, said Buntin.

The Park at Melrose Heights is an early example of that. HND Realty quickly sold the original 80 condos at the development, located at 2197 Nolensville Pike near I-440, and is completing an additional 70 residences.

For now at least, Woodbine’s prices make it more attainable than nearby neighborhoods like Crieve Hall, where prices are reaching $400,000, said Buntin.

“I’ve been preaching Woodbine for a long time. This is definitely the neighborhood’s year,” he said.

Growing demand, combined with the rising cost of building sites, materials and labor, mean home prices are rising in Woodbine, said Synergy Realty Network Realtor Brandon Bubis. He is selling a three-bedroom two-and-a-half bath home at 2112 Jade Drive for $295,000.

“Prices are just going nuts,” said Bubis. “The next one is $370,000. We don’t have any fear that we’ll sell it.”

Reach Bill Lewis at 615-262-5862 or wlewis77229@comcast.net.