Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

Almost halfway through July and real estate is heating up a bit along with the temperature. This past week’s real estate transactions reported in the Knoxville New-Sentinel hit a high for the year at 234!

Knox County real estate transfers recorded for the week of July 12th

Before we get too excited over that number however, June, July, and August are historically the months with the highest numbers of real estate activity.

A more valid number should be available in the next few days and that would be the 2nd quarter of 2009 sales report from the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors (KAAR) compared to other 2nd quarters. I’ll post those numbers as soon as they become available.

The most recently available KAAR monthly data is for May which showed a total of 928 closed transactions for Knox and the the other counties KAAR serves.

Here’s how that looks compared to previous months of May.

May of 2009 compared to past months of May

As you can see from the graph, sales are still below even levels from 10 years ago.

That means it’s still a very, very strong buyer’s market in Knoxville as well as most of the rest of the United States.

The $8,000 tax credit expires at the end of November 2009 which is less than 5 months away.

New lending regulations kick in at the end of July which will increase processing time for a new home mortgage. My favorite mortgage banker, Shawna Parsley is telling me to now write offers with a 45 day closing period instead of a 30 like we used to be able to do.

If you’re considering buying a new home in 2009, NOW is  the time to get started. www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com will let you see all the Knoxville area Realtors listings with no registration required.

Do you have a question about real estate in the greater Knoxville area? If so, please ask it here or email me and I’ll either give you an answer on the spot or find it for you.

So far I’ve had a 100% success rate answering questions but I also have a huge database of other experienced mortgage bankers, title officers, home inspectors, and other real estate professional to draw from.