Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

Well another week has passed by and it’s time for the weekly real estate closings from the Knox County Register of Deeds office.

Knox County Tennessee real estate transactions recorded.

Last weeks transfers totaled 184 with the $100 to $200 price range continuing to dominate the stats.

There are lots of high end Knox County homes for sale but very few buyers. For example today in Knox County alone there are 117 listings priced at over 1 million dollars. However, year to date, there have only been 16 actual closings of homes in that price range; that’s about 2 per month in round numbers (2.29 to be exact)

At that sales rate it will take 51 months, or over 4 years to sell that many homes in that price range assuming no new listings come on the market in that time period.

The $500,000 to $1,000,000 is doing a bit better. They have 354 active listings and 68 sales year to date. That translates into a 36 month supply of those homes.

Average listing price of Knoxville, TN area homes

Then just take a look at the $100,000 to $150,000 range. 780 current, active listings but we’re selling about 80 a month here. At that rate that less than a 10 month supply and why that price range dominates all the sales figures in 2009.

The $8,000 tax credit that I believe has been driving a lot of sales in this price range expires at the end of November this year. I’m very interested to see what happens to the figures after November 30th.

Not too late to take advantage of the tax credit if you’re thinking of buying but with processing times being as long as 45 and as many as 60 days in some cases, you need to have a house under contract not later than October 15th if you plan to qualify for the $8,000.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is always a good place to get started looking.

Now that the first half of 2009 is behind us, sales data is available to compare with previous years to see how we’re doing.

Since all the numbers for 2009 so far have been dramatically down from recent years I expected the first half to be the same and it was; here’ s the numbers:

First 6 months of Knoxville sales for 2009 compared to past years

From the highest number in 2006 the first half of 2009 sales figures are down over 51% in comparison.

For the remainder of 2009 and likely 2010 I don’t see much improvement in sales numbers.

Unemployment remains historically high and according to the U.S. Department of Labor forecast is going much higher. In June of this year US unemployment was 9.7% of the workforce and projections are for 11%+ in early 2010.

U.S. Department of Labor Unemployment Forecast.

Also look for mortgage interest rates to start rising from August of 2009 forward unless something dramatic happens to the economy. Right now 30 year fixed rates are in the very low 5% range but they could be in the 6s this fall.

U.S. 30 year fixed rate mortgage interest projections

And finally the $8,000 tax credit that has been driving a large percentage of this year’s sales expires on November 30th of this year and I believe that will take a big chunk of buyers out of the market.

All of the Knoxville area Realtor listings are available to you to view at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com.

Please feel free to leave your comments here and call or email me with any questions or to arrange to see some homes for sale.

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