The Realtor new magazine "Inman News" has identified 10 markets where real estate agents are still doing business and making sales despite the economic and housing downturn, based on total sales, median price, and license and Realtor group membership data.

The 10 markets are:

1. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.
2. Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
3. Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colo.
4. Salt Lake City, Utah
5. San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas
6. Pittsburgh, PA
7. Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas
8. Kansas City Mo.-Kan.
9. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas
10. Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, Tenn.

Average sales volume in these markets ranges from $599,171 (Nashville) to $1.54 million (Seattle) and sales per Realtor ranging from 3.2 (Austin) to

Here is a note from Paula to keep me uptodate with her progress with selling her listings and helping buyers find homes:

"This week’s activities:

-Finalized an offer on my Franklin listing in Founders Point 

-Finalized an offer on downtown condo at Icon

-Showing homes on Saturday in West Nashville $250’s

-Showing on Sunday in Franklin $300’s"

Like the rest of the team Paula is keeping very busy with seeling homes in the Nashville, Franklin and Brentwood areas. It's clear that there is still a demand for homes in a market that has suffered some losses over the last couple of years but still holds a lot of attraction for people who want to relocate to the Nashville TN area.

There will always be the constant demand of people looking

Hard work is paying off for Diana! She is working with a condo buyer (130k), and 2 investors. One closed on a property and has an accepted offer on another property. Both will be listed soon (125K, 115K) Her other investor just had an offer accepted. This shows that the real estate market in Nashville is still providing some great opportunities for buyers and investors alike.

The demand for rental homes seems to on the increase which is a direct result of the change in mortgage qualifications and the fact that people are stiill hesitant about buying a home. The consumer confidence still seems to be erring on the side of caution which means that the time it's taking ahome to sell is overall increasing.

The other side of a real estate market

Jonny Lee of RE/MAX Elite in Nashville kept the summer rolling with 3 closings last week, one new listing and 1 new offer submitted.

He also showed homes to 3 different sets of new clients and 2 of his on-going short sale deals look like they are on the verge of acceptance!! Woohoo...

Just another sign that real estate sales in Nashville with The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Elite are still increasing as the team continues to expand and create more listings to take advantage of the internet presence of TAREG of RE/MAX.

Barbara Blackwood Childs is wrapping up her busiest month  – with five scheduled closings this week, four closings already completed this month, and more in the pipeline. 

Nashville real estate is looking like it's alive and well, and Barbara’s busy daily schedule and closings is proof. 

Barbara has closed over $2,665,000 of Middle Tennessee real estate, all with a six week period!

Jason had a successful week with a closing today for first time home buyers, with another first time buyer closing scheduled for next week.  

He also wrote two offers, one of which is already under contract in the $330k range, and the other "very close" in the $175k range.  

Jason is spending the weekend showing homes in the $500k range in Franklin/Hendersonville and $300k range in East Nashville.

Mark, as part of his education for the Nashville market, attended WCAR lunch on Tuesday with guest speak Dr. Lawerence (chief economist NAR).

He completed Realtracs training on Wednesday. On Thursday I spent 7 hours driving his clients from Arizona around 6 properties in White Creek, Lebanon, Gallatin, Goodlettsville and Mt. Juliet.

He will be showing same clients more properties (suitable for donkeys!) next week. :)

This is a change for Mark as he has relocated from Ireland where he was no starnger to real estate, having owned his own RE/MAX agency in Dublin. He decided to move to Nashville and join the #1 team with RE/AX Elite...The Ashton Real Estate Group!

LeAnne Constantine of The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Elite and Nashville.com continues an active real estate summer.

She is showing property to out of state buyers this week at just under $400K, and then showing property in 2 weeks to new clients at just under $2M.  

She'll be posting a new listing in Franklin, TN at just under $300K and closing a development deal on lots at just under $700K.  And the fall season is promising to be as busy as the summer has been!

Leanne has managed to keep extremely busy with real estate since joining the team and in the meantime has been using her knowledge and expertise in the equestrian market to educate and help clients looking for horse farms and smaller equestrian properties.

Great week for Bradley Barrett. Two Accepted contracts this week. One in Nashville for just under $335,000. The other is for just under $100,000. Both are set to close the second week of September. Looks like he will have two more contracts written up in the next two weeks, both in the mid $200's.

Loks like the Nashville real estate market is still keep The Ashton Real estate Group of RE/MAX Elite busy. The turmoil in the stock market may actually help keep the mortgage rates low to try and keep the interest in buying homes in Nashville going.

It seems some condos and homes are having some issues with selling, but as usual, the most attractively priced homes and ones that are in good lcations and are well maintained are selling first.

As with any