By Thomas E. Wood

This time each month, we normally bring you our Headline Homes column, a look at who has been buying and selling the hottest houses on the market in the prior month.

Readers seem to take a keen interest in what’s going on at the tippy-top of the property ladder, whether out of admiration or envy or plain old prurient curiosity.

However, when the most expensive sale of the month comes in at “only” $1.3 million, we think it might be a stretch to run a full list of the Top 10 transactions from February — not that there’s anything wrong with a house that costs $900,000 or $1 million.

We all know thrift is the new glamour these days.

Here, then, in all modesty, are the five largest home sales from Davidson and neighboring counties whose deeds were recorded in February 2009:

104 Windsor Drive, 37205 — $1.3 million

Four bedrooms, three and a half baths, 4,900 square feet. Buyers: David G. & Birgitta B. Williamson. Seller: Judith Needham, as trustee of the George L. Bunting Jr. descendants’ trust. Agents: Susanne Cato and Cathie Cato Renken, French Christianson Patterson (buyer); Steve Fridrich, Fridrich & Clark Realty (seller). Original listing price: $1.35 million. Days on market: 0.

4612 General Lowrey Drive, 37215 — $1.295 million

Buyers: Carolyn B. & G. Whit James. Builder/seller: HR Properties of Tennessee. No agent or other info available.

3301 Running Springs Court, Franklin, Tenn. 37064 — $1.2 million

Five bedrooms, six and a half baths, 5,600 square feet. Buyers: Russell & Jill Branyan. Sellers: Holly F. & William Phillip Jones Jr. Agents: Drew Hendry, SilverPointe Properties (buyer); Nathan L. Postlethwait, SilverPointe (seller). Original listing price: $1.298 million. Days on market: 210.

2140 Timberwood Drive, 37215 — $1.2 million

Four bedrooms, four and a half baths, 5,000 square feet. Buyers: Blair Garner & Jason Briggs. Builder/seller: W & N Investments LLC. Agents: Dennis Johnson and Keith Merrill, Worth Properties (buyer); Laura Baugh of Worth Properties and Joshua Burcham of Reliant Realty (seller). Original listing price: $1.48 million. Days on market: 348.

3604 Sycamore Lane, 37215 — $1.2 million

Four bedrooms, four full and two half baths, 4,900 square feet. Buyers: Joseph D. & Shelby Wheliss. Sellers: Robert T., David G. and John W. McClellan and Ann McClellan Mashburn, trustees. Agents: Barbara Keith Payne, Harpeth Company (buyer); Steve Fridrich, Fridrich & Clark Realty (seller). Original listing price: $1.4 million. Days on market: 74.