Going into October I counted at least eleven condos and town homes over $650,000 under contract. Eight of them closed in October, including the WestGate penthouse for $1.65 million and both $775,000 units at The Elle that I named as pending last month. That’s why the median sale jumped to $437,450 on just 26 closings, the fewest of the eight months I track this way and the second highest median of them, behind April. So the higher median is mostly about which units sold, not prices rising across the board. Eight of the 26 sales were above $650,000 and seven were new construction. Underneath that, the bottom of the market leaned a little toward buyers: half of the twelve sales under $350,000 closed below asking. The number I’d keep an eye on is 147. That’s how many condos and town homes were for sale on November 1, up 4 in a month.
26
Closed in October
$437,450
Median sale
147
For sale, November 1
4.2
Months of supply
What the headline says
$437,450
What a resale sold for
$299,900
Eight sales above $650,000 carried 60.3 percent of October’s dollars, and seven of the 26 sales were new construction: The Gates at South Zone, a Bryant Row town home, a 12th Avenue Terraces town home and four Ivory Bluff town homes. That pulls the county median up without a single unit being repriced. Set the seven new-construction sales aside and the other 19 had a median of $299,900. Anywhere you see “resale” below, it means everything except those seven.
How long the listings would last at the current sales pace
Now the supply side
65 for sale, up from 62 a month ago, against about 250 sales a year. Still on the seller’s side of the line, but it has loosened two months running, from about two months of supply on September 1 to just over three now. 26 of the listings dated October landed here.
22 for sale against about 87 sales a year, the same count as a month ago. Six sales in October, but four were Ivory Bluff town homes entered as listed and sold the same day, and four of the six contracts still open here are at Ivory Bluff too. Take out one development and this range was quiet.
61 for sale against about 89 sales a year, one more than a month ago. Eight sold, and new and relisted units filled the gap right back in. It’s the only range where buyers have the upper hand, and it’s also where October’s money went.
Under 4 months of supply favors sellers, over 6 favors buyers. Based on 425 sales over the trailing twelve months and the 147 condos for sale on November 1, 2026, both pulled the same day. MLS price ranges share their edges, so the three add up to 148 listings and 426 sales, one more than each total. Put together, the county is at 4.2 months, up from 4.0, just past the line between a seller’s market and a balanced one.
What this means for you
If you are buying
- Under $350,000, ask what a unit has done since it listed. Half of October’s twelve sales here closed below asking, including all three at Midtown Village, the condos above the shops on 5th Avenue East, and 65 are for sale, up from 62. At about three months of supply this is still the tightest range, so think room to negotiate, not a buyer’s market. If a unit has sat at one price for months, check recent sales before deciding what to offer.
- Between $350,000 and $650,000, read the comps carefully. Only two of October’s six sales here were resales. The other four were Ivory Bluff town homes at $626,250, entered as listed and sold the same day after those same units had been listed at $650,000 to $675,000. If you’re pricing a new town home there, the closings run $599,900 in September and $626,250 in October, and four more on 5th Street NE are under contract asking $619,900 to $629,900.
- Above $650,000, take your time. 61 for sale, about eight months of supply, and only five contracts written up here in October that are still open, against eight closings. Two of the eight luxury sales closed under asking, the WestGate penthouse at 94.3 percent after 184 days. Ask for the full status history on the unit, because seven listings up here came off and went right back on at the same price this month.
- If you’re investing, time on market is where the terms are. The WestGate penthouse closed at 94.3 percent of asking after 184 days, and seven units above $650,000 came off and went back on at the same price after 111 to 194 days. Listings that have sat are usually where buyers get the best terms, though Bryant Row closed $5,000 over asking after 371 days, so judge each one on its own record.
- Watch University Downs. A new operator now runs the apartments on the same property, and the condo units are still trading, between $152,000 and $264,900 since April. Before you buy there, review the association documents and confirm who maintains what. At Watercress, a 2017 apartment complex on 6th Avenue NE being sold off unit by unit, three more units closed at full asking in October, for 26 since July 1. The building you’re looking at may be nothing like either one.
If you are selling
- Price off the last few sales in your building, not the listings around you. The Elle, the 1992 building on 8th Street a block from the stadium, closed four units in October from $475,000 to $900,000, every one at full asking. The WestGate penthouse that was asking $1.75 million closed at $1.65 million.
- Pulling your listing and putting it right back up doesn’t erase the history. Of the six August listings that did it at the same price, three are still sitting at that price a month later, one cut, one sold $10,000 under asking and one went under contract at its price. Seven more did it in October, all above $650,000. Assume the buyer looking at your unit has already pulled the history, because they can.
- Under $350,000 you’ve got more company. 65 for sale against 62 a month ago, 26 more listings dated October, and half of the twelve sales closed under asking. Price for a conversation, and price from your building’s last sales. The three Watercress units that got full asking say something about that building, not necessarily yours.
- Above $650,000, eight closings don’t reprice the whole tier. They were contracts signed in August and September, and 12 of October’s 18 withdrawals were above $650,000. Price off your own building and the listings still sitting, and reply if you want me to send you those sales.
The year so far
Eight full months, same method, one restatement
I rebuild every month since March from one search, the same way each time. When I reran it on November 1, every month matched what I published except July. July was published as 39 closings at a $278,500 median. It now reads 40 at $279,200, because a sale that closed July 17 at $337,500 (MLS 173349) was entered into the MLS after October 1. That’s one sale and $700 in the median, and it’s the first time a closing date has drifted in this archive. Until now only contract counts moved after the fact. If you relied on July’s figure for anything, reply and I’ll walk you through it. The month-by-month counts and medians are in the stat sheet at the bottom of this page.
Here’s where October lands. It had the fewest closings of the eight months, 26, one fewer than April. It was fifth for dollars, at about $15.5 million, behind May, June, September and April. And it was second for median, behind April’s $485,000. April and October have the same shape: April had 12 sales above $650,000 out of 27, and October had 8 of 26.
When a big share of a small month lands at the top, the median follows, and nothing has to be repriced for that to happen.
Where the money actually went
Eight big contracts landed in one month
Eight sales cleared $650,000 in October, about $9.4 million together, or 60 percent of every dollar that closed in the county. Four closed between $750,000 and $900,000 and four between $1.4 million and $1.65 million. Every one of the eight went under contract in August or September, so October is when the money showed up, not when the demand did. The eight: the WestGate Residences penthouse ($1.65 million against a $1.75 million ask, after 184 days), in the 2020 tower on 8th Street beside the stadium; a new unit at The Gates at South Zone on 12th Street by the stadium’s south end zone ($1.6 million, full asking); a Bryant Row town home, from the row of new town homes on Paul W Bryant Drive a few blocks from the stadium ($1,505,000, $5,000 over asking after 371 days); The Enclave, 2023 town homes on Red Drew Avenue ($1.4 million against $1.45 million); three at The Elle ($900,000 and two at $775,000, all full asking); and a new town home at 12th Avenue Terraces on 12th Avenue ($750,000, full asking).
The middle had six sales, and four were the Ivory Bluff town homes below. The other two were resales: a unit at The Elle at its full $475,000 asking price after going under contract the day it listed, and one at Shamrock Condos, an older building on 9th Street, at $399,900 against $419,900.
The bottom had twelve sales at a median of $242,450, and this is where the month leaned toward buyers. Six closed under asking, five at asking and one over. All three Midtown Village sales closed under asking, at 96 to 98 percent. Three Watercress units got full price, $299,900 to $309,900. Across all 26 sales, 17 closed at or above asking, but four of those are the Ivory Bluff same-day entries, so it’s really 13 of 22.
The $437,450 median is a mix effect, not appreciation. Take out the seven new-construction sales and the other 19 had a median of $299,900.
The middle, with a footnote
Four town homes, one day, one price
Four new town homes at Ivory Bluff on 4th Street NE all closed on October 30 at $626,250 each. The MLS shows them at full asking, but each one was entered as listed and sold on the same day under a new listing number. The same four units had been listed since late June and early August, three at $650,000 and one at $675,000, and those listings came off on October 30. Against those earlier prices, $626,250 is about 4 to 7 percent under where they started.
The same buyer’s agent is on all four sales. That’s all the MLS shows. It doesn’t say whether that was one buyer or four, so I won’t guess.
For context, three Ivory Bluff town homes closed in September at $599,900 each, and five more went under contract in October: four on 5th Street NE asking $619,900 to $629,900, and one on 4th Street NE, the same 1,700-square-foot plan, asking $775,000. That one was listed at $750,000 on October 8, pulled four days later and relisted the same day $25,000 higher.
What happened to last month’s pipeline
11 of September’s 17 closed, and the big ones held
Last month I counted 17 contracts signed in September that were still open on October 1. By October 31, 11 had closed, for about $9.4 million, or 98.4 percent of their combined asking prices. The other six are still under contract and none fell through. The closings: the WestGate penthouse, The Gates at South Zone, Bryant Row, The Enclave, two at The Elle ($900,000 and $475,000), 12th Avenue Terraces, two Watercress units, a unit at University Downs Condos, the 1991 condominium on 15th Street East, at $264,900, and one at Capstone Quarters, the gated community on Helen Keller Boulevard east of campus, at $239,900 against $249,900. Still pending: two at Wesley Place, a 2013 development on Wesley Place, one at The Mount on 3rd Court, a second Capstone Quarters unit, the Camellia Place unit asking $1,075,000 in the 2019 building on 13th Street, and the second Bryant Row town home, asking $1,470,000.
The ten August contracts still open on October 1 mostly resolved too. Six closed: a Watercress unit, the two Elle units at $775,000, the Shamrock unit, one at The Retreat on Hargrove, a 1990 building on 8th Avenue, and one at Hidden Valley East, a 1973 complex on Woodland Trace. A seventh, Ivory Bluff 580, had been under contract on its $650,000 listing since August; that listing came off October 30 and the home closed the same day under a new number at $626,250. Two units at The Druid, downtown on Greensboro Avenue, are still pending, and a third is back on the market.
Now the new pipeline. By contract date, 33 condos and town homes went under contract in October, against 21 in September. Two asterisks. Four of the 33 are the Ivory Bluff town homes entered as listed, under contract and sold the same day, so it’s 29 without them. And contract dates in this MLS get filled in late: August’s count went from 36 to 40 after the fact. September’s 21 didn’t creep up the way I expected; it still reads 21. Treat October’s number as rough.
24 of October’s contracts were still pending on October 31, asking about $10.5 million combined: 13 under $350,000, 6 between $350,000 and $650,000, and 5 above $650,000, the biggest a unit at The Chimes, a 2007 building on Hackberry Lane, asking $975,000. A month ago nine of September’s 17 open contracts were above $650,000, so the top of the new pipeline is thinner. Asking price isn’t contract price. The contract price stays private until the sale closes.
Last month’s big contracts held. The new pipeline is bigger by count but thinner at the top.
How fast each price range actually moved
Median days on market, resales only
Under $350,000, the typical resale took four weeks (28 days, on 12 sales). Between $350,000 and $650,000 there were only two resales, at 0 and 19 days, too few to call a pace. Above $650,000 the five resales took a median of 52 days, from an Elle unit that went under contract the day it listed to the WestGate penthouse at 184. The new-construction sales are left out because their clocks mean something different: the four Ivory Bluff homes show zero days because of how they were entered, and the other three sat 148, 223 and 371 days.
Last month I said the entry level had firmed up: in September, with the Watercress units set aside, 3 of 10 entry-level resales closed under asking. Set them aside again and 6 of the 9 in October closed under asking, at a median of 98.2 percent. Nine sales isn’t a trend, but it’s a lean back toward buyers.
The part nobody publishes
Eighteen came off, seven came right back at the same price
Sellers pulled 18 listings in October, typically after about two months, and 12 of the 18 were asking more than $650,000. Seven came back the same day at the same price: four new 3,161-square-foot units at The Vista on 18th Street at $899,900 each, after 167 and 168 days; two WestGate units at $1,599,900 each, after 111 and 194 days; and a 2020 town home at Eleventh Street Townhomes on Maxie Thomas Way at $1.3 million after 111 days. Five more were Ivory Bluff listings: the four that came off and closed the same day, and the one that came back $25,000 higher. Three new town homes at Collier Row on Almon Avenue, listed in August at $1.3 million and $1.4 million, came off October 5 after 54 days and haven’t come back. The rest were two University Downs units and one at Merry Oaks, a 1974 building on 15th Avenue.
The Vista units are the ones to understand. They were listed April 22 and 23, sat about five and a half months, came off October 7 and went back on the same day at the same price. On November 1 they showed 24 days on market. A new listing date resets the counter buyers see. It doesn’t reset the history, and buyers can pull the history.
Last month I said all six August same-price relists were still sitting. A month later two have moved. One of the two Emory Woods units, in the 1999 complex on Veterans Memorial Parkway, sold October 22 for $132,500, $10,000 under asking. The Ivory Bluff unit on 5th Street NE went under contract October 6 at its $619,900 price. The Ridge at Timber Cove unit, on Timber Cove Circle, cut $5,000 to $399,900. The Watercress unit, the Fairfax Village unit on Fairfax Drive and the other Emory Woods unit are still listed at the same price.
From September’s relists: two of the three town homes at The Row on Fourteenth, new town homes on 14th Street, are still at $849,900 and $839,900, and the third cut $20,000 to $799,900. The St Charles Place unit on Saint Charles Way went under contract October 21 at the same $259,900. The Midtown Village unit and the one at The Townes of North River are still for sale.
A new listing date resets the counter buyers see, not the price history.
New supply at the top
A $3.1 million ask, and three new units on 8th Avenue
The highest asking price in October’s data was a WestGate Residences unit at $3,099,900, 2,040 square feet, about $1,520 a square foot. Three new 1,810-square-foot units at T C I & L, 1115 8th Avenue, came on October 26 at $1.65 million, $1,725,000 and $1.8 million. Also new: a Park Place Condominiums unit, in the 2020 building on University Boulevard, at $1.65 million; an Enclave unit at 812 Red Drew Avenue at $1.4 million after a price cut; a unit at Soho, a 2010 building on University Boulevard, at $724,900; and a Shamrock Condos unit at $659,000.
The Enclave listing is the one I’d watch. It’s the same 2,612 square feet as the Enclave unit that closed October 19 at $1.4 million, and it’s now asking that same number. Add the seven same-price relists and the top of this market keeps adding supply about as fast as it closes: 61 for sale above $650,000 on November 1, against eight sales in October and five new contracts still open.
Around Tuscaloosa
University Downs has a new name, rates, and a busy November
University Downs is now Haven at University Downs. The apartment community on 15th Street East near campus has a new owner and a new name. Hackberry Lane, a company based in New York that also owns Haven on Hackberry, now runs it. The new website says renovations are underway, and leasing for 2027-28 starts at $975 a bed. I couldn’t find the sale price. If you own a condo there, this is the part that matters: the condo units weren’t bought out. County records still show them split among individual owners, and they keep selling. In October, unit 507 sold for $264,900, full asking price, after 12 days. A well-funded operator next door can help a property, but ask how the association and the new owner will split the grounds and the costs.
The Sports Illustrated resort: construction is underway on Rice Mine Road along the river, and the buildings have started going up. Plans call for two six-story towers, one with 75 condos for sale, with opening aimed at the 2028 football season. Prices haven’t been announced.
“Should I wait for rates to come down?” The Fed left its own short-term rate alone on October 28, after raising it in September. Mortgage rates don’t move in lockstep with the Fed: Freddie Mac’s weekly average for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 7.24 percent the week of October 29, about a point higher than a year ago. Nobody can tell you when that changes, me included. What I can tell you is that people are adjusting rather than waiting: about 33 condos and town homes went under contract in October, 29 without the four Ivory Bluff same-day entries, up from 21 in September. Run the payment at today’s rate, not the one you’re hoping for. If it works, the unit is the real decision. Some buildings here need a different kind of loan than a standard mortgage, so talk to a local lender before you shop. I’m not a lender; the lender decides what a given building qualifies for and on what terms.
Chattanooga comes to Bryant-Denny on Saturday, November 21, at 1pm for Senior Day, and the Iron Bowl is Saturday, November 28, time to be announced. Kentuck First Friday is November 6 and the Kentuck Art Market is November 21, and ice skating at Holidays on the Plaza downtown starts Monday, November 23. The final episode of Nick Saban’s ESPN series airs Thursday, November 5. My picks if you’re in town: coffee at Monarch Espresso Bar on 22nd Avenue, a beer at Alcove next door, and dinner at Urban Bar & Kitchen on University Boulevard. If you’re coming in, send me your dates and I’ll set up tours of any condo, town home or house while you’re here. Dates come from published schedules and times move, so double-check before you plan around them.
Full Numbers
Every status, side by side
| Status | Min Ask | Max Ask | Ask | Still active Nov 1 | Already under contract | Closed · withdrawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October list date (54, relists included) | $130,000 | $3,099,900 | $427,450 | 37 | 10 | 6 · 1 |
Key Numbers
October 2026 recap
26
Closed in October
$437,450
Median sale
$299,900
Median resale
60.3%
Of dollars above $650K
11 of 17
September contracts that closed
18
Withdrawn, 7 back at same price
Data sourced from WAMLS. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
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