Franklin, Tenn. — October 8, 2026

Rutherford County's housing market moved further toward buyers in September, with closed sales down 12% from a year earlier and the number of homes for sale climbing past 1,689, according to a monthly market report published Oct. 5 by John Jones Real Estate, a Murfreesboro brokerage.

The county had 1,557 homes on the market at the same point last year. The brokerage said the increase has pushed available supply well above four months, a level generally viewed as the dividing line between a market that favors sellers and one that is balanced or tilts toward buyers.

Pending contracts, a forward-looking measure of deals that have not yet closed, fell just 4% from a year earlier. The brokerage called that one of the more encouraging figures in the report, given the rate environment, because it suggests buyers are still signing contracts even as closings slow.

Prices showed the clearest change. The average sale price in September was about $479,656, compared with $507,282 a year earlier, a decline of nearly 5.5%. The brokerage cautioned that the figure does not mean every home in the county has lost that much value, noting that more transactions now include seller-paid closing costs and other concessions that a simple comparison of sale prices does not capture.

Other measures point the same direction. Realtracs data compiled by the Turner Victory Team show 446 closings in Rutherford County in August, down from 505 a year earlier, with the median sale price easing to $426,000 from $435,000. Months of supply rose to 4.45 from 3.74, and homes spent an average of 33 days on the market, up from 28. Redfin reported a county median sale price of about $428,000 for the three months ending in August, down 3.1% from a year earlier, with homes taking about 65 days to sell compared with 55 a year before.

Borrowing costs remain the main drag on demand. Freddie Mac's average 30-year fixed rate stood at 7.28% as of Oct. 1, its highest level since November 2023, and the brokerage said higher rates are keeping some would-be buyers on the sidelines.

For buyers who can manage today's payments, the shift has changed what is on the table. The brokerage said buyers may be able to negotiate on price, ask sellers to contribute toward closing costs or fund an interest-rate buydown, and request terms that were rare during the seller's markets of recent years. In August, it noted that many builders in the county were also offering incentives such as rate buydowns and builder-paid closing costs.

Those concessions carry financing implications. Seller and builder credits are capped by loan program, typically as a percentage of the purchase price, and a credit can only be applied to allowable costs. A buyer weighing a lower price against a larger credit is effectively choosing between a smaller loan balance and lower upfront cash, and the better choice depends on how long the buyer expects to keep the loan.

Sellers, meanwhile, face a market that rewards realistic pricing. With more than four months of inventory, the brokerage said, pricing a home based on what a neighbor received in a different market can leave a listing struggling to compete.

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