Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

The Knoxville Area Association of REALTORS® recently released their 1st Quarter 2007 sales report.

You can access the report here

Compare it to the 1st quarter of 2006

And the 1st quarter of 2005

The good news is this for home sellers. 1st quarter 2007 sales was 3,386 total single family homes & condos sold. This compares pretty favorably to 3,675 sold during the same time period in 2006 and 3,236 during the 1st quarter of 2005.

This beautiful, brand new, 2,500 square foot home is priced at $245,900

The good news for home buyers is that your investment in a Knoxville home is likely to continue to appreciate in value. 1st qtr 2007 average price for a 3 bedroom home was $165,400 compared to $156,900 in 1st qtr 2006 and $146,200 in the same time period for 2005.

Further proof positive that Knoxville is not experiencing any sort of housing bubble and prices continue to escalate modestly as sales stay relatively static.

If you’re thinking of buying a Knoxville area home NOW is a great time. The benchmark 30 year fixed rate mortgages are just under 6% and there is a great selection of homes for sale. But like the figures show, don’t wait too long or your dream home could cost thousands of dollars more than you can buy for today.

2,000 square foot, 3 bedroom Cape Cod for only $199,900

Visit my website, www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to view all our Knoxville area Realtor listings currently for sale, including Farragut, Oak Ridge, and Maryville, and then give me a call to help you buy one.

 

To relieve an overcrowding problem in the Knox County School system a new high school is under construction in the western end of Hardin Valley in the west Knoxville area.

A somewhat controversial re-zoning plan was recently approved by the Knox County School Board by a 5-4 vote with the commissioners in the most affected zones voting no.

I remember similar controversies in the past few years when A. L. Lotts Elementary came online and before that a minor rezoning around West High School. In the end after all the dust had settled students quickly adjusted to life in their new schools and parents adjusted too, just not as quickly.

I suspect it will the be same for the new Hardin Valley High School which is scheduled to open in the Fall term of 2008.

Students from Farragut, Karns, Powell, West, and Bearden High Schools will be most affected by the rezoning

Sallee Reynolds has been chosen as the Hardin Valley Principal and she’s already hard at work assembling a staff and getting ready for their inagural year in 2008.

Sallee Reynolds, Principal, Hardin Valley High

She seems well qualified: “Reynolds has been an educator since 1981 when she joined the Knoxville Catholic High School faculty as a mathematics teacher. She joined Knox County Schools in 1989 as a math teacher at West High School. She was an assistant principal and Central High School from 2001 to 2003, and she became the principal at West High in 2004.”
 

I wish Ms Reynolds and her new high school well; I’m confident the new school with be a credit to Knoxville as are the rest of the Knox County schools.

Hard to believe it’s already the first week of May; this year is passing by very quickly.

The Knoxville area weather has been a little quirky the past few weeks like the Spring weather tends to do around here. We had a late cold snap about 4 weeks ago that damaged a lot of blooming flowers, shrubs, and trees including our famous Knoxville Dogwoods.

The annual Dogwood Arts Festival was great again this year. It’s billed as one of the largest civic celebrations in North America and commerates the blooming of the Dogwood Flowers along with local art.

My wife Charlotte and I moved into our new home a few weeks ago. We now live in the West Hills neighborhood on the west side of Knoxville near the West Town Mall. It’s a great house, all brick, 3 bedroom, 2 baths, side entry garage, big, level yard, and a world class covered back porch we’re considering screening in.

We bought this one without selling our former home with the help of a bridge loan. We’re paying interest only on the bridge loan until I can get the former house refurbished and ready to sell.

It’s almost ready. We remodeled the kitchen last year with new cabinets, quartz countertops, new lighting, and a hardwood floor. Just finished having inside repainted, new carpet throughout, new lighting all over, and new vinyl in the bathrooms along with new fixtures.

Before putting it on the market I’m going to have a pre-inspection by a home inspector and correct any issues he may discover, get an appraisal to ensure aggressive pricing, provide a home warranty, and a higher than average commission to buyer’s agents; in short all the things I advise my seller clients to do.

My goal is to have it on the market by mid-May and it’s looking good so far.

UPDATE: our former home sold for full price, second day on the market to the first person that looked at it.

Proof positive you need to follow your Realtor’s sound advice when selling.

If you’re looking for a new home in the greater Knoxville, Tennessee area including Farragut, Maryville, Oak Ridge, or Loudon County you can view all the Realtor listings on my website at www.KnoxvilleMLS.com

Please call with any real estate questions or to get a complimentary package of Knoxville information for newcomers.

My personal Toll Free number is 1-800-662-2488, extension 163 or you can use the nifty “Click Here” feature on the top left of my website, it calls any number you designate and my cell phone at the same time.