There are definitely advantages to being a strong and growing, but stable, community:

Information out this afternoon in the Fiserv Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes uses Nashville’s home market as an example of a bright spot in a national market that has seen average prices fall by some 14 percent. Contributing to our market’s relative resilience, the study claims, are the comparative affordability of Nashville homes and our job market, which has outpaced national growth figures in the last three years. Nashville’s median home price has remained fairly steady at $156,000 over the last year. And while that figure is well below the national average of $196,000, Nashvillians on the whole pay a smaller portion of their household income on monthly mortgage payments.

It’s easy to envy the booms in places such as Arizona, Florida, Nevada and California, but it’s nice to avoid the steep declines that often follow.

Last week, I quoted NBJ Editor Lance Williams as saying that Nashville needs to do a better job connecting its capital with its entrepreneurial community. At least one local venture capitalist, John Chadwick, agrees. According to him, he’d welcome the competition because it would strengthen Nashville’s economy:

Chadwick said that while he enjoys Claritas’ singular standing in Entrepreneur’s annual ranking, he believes that in the longer term it’d be better for everyone if there were more early-stage investors active in Nashville. Sharpening the point, Chadwick explained that more Tennessee funds making more early-stage investments – with an eye for good deals in their own backyard – would strengthen the state’s entrepreneurial “ecosystem,” deepen the pool of capital and create a bigger pipeline of the talented executives and specialists who are so critical to early-stage success.

I think Chadwick is right that increased investment in local startups would have a snowball effect here, and I’d like to see that happen.