Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

Wow, we’re experiencing colder than normal weather in Knoxville, TN this week; it’s been below freezing for over a week now.

That’s a bit unusual for this area but it seems the whole United States has been experiencing below normal temperatures over the past few days. It’s supposed to get above freezing today with highs in the 50s toward the end of this week; I’m ready for some warmer (relatively) weather.

It appears from the weather map below that a high pressure system from the Gulf Coast and a low pressure system from Canada and further north are colliding over Knoxville right now. I’m pulling for the high to win.

US weather map

Although the air temperature is cold, the Knoxville real estate market is hot for buyers right now. Lots of homes for sale, motivated sellers, low interest rates, AND an $8,000 tax credit for most buyers.

Visit www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com to pick one out and call me to go take a look at it.

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This very motivated seller is willing to do a lease purchase on this beautiful country home in north Knoxville.

Here’s the latest real estate property transfers as reported by the Knox County, Tennessee Register of Deeds.

Year to date Knox County has been averaging around 150 transfers (sales) a week. The week just passed reported 135 sales which is a bit below the average. I’m putting that down to the fast approaching Christmas week and other things than home buying on people’s minds.

You’ll notice from past reports that even the hot $100,000 to $150,000 price range sank down a little this past week.

I’m starting to hear from mortgage bankers all over the country that interest rates are on the rise and we will almost certainly be looking at 6% rates sometime before mid 2010, probably in the early months.

Of course 6% is a pretty phenomenal rate, I remember back about 30 years ago when I bought my first house and got an 8% fixed rate. I thought that was the best thing possible, which of course at that time it was.

If you’re thinking if buying, NOW is a great time. The $8,000 tax credit that most buyers will qualify for expires at the end of April in 2010 and I’m betting it will not be renewed again.

Even existing home owners can now get up to $6,500 if they buy another home for their principal residence AND your existing home does not have to be sold for you to qualify.

There is still a huge selection of homes for sale and motivated (for now) sellers are willing to make deals to entice buyers to buy their house over another.

And finally interest rates are still very, very attractive.

So putting all these factors together makes this sort of a perfect storm for home buyers.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is the ‘go to’ place to see all Knoxville and Farragut Realtor listings as wells as many surrounding counties. Come on in and have a look around, you might find that “just right” home for you and your family.

Please feel free to leave your comments or email me with any questions.

Best wishes to everyone for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!

Located in Anderson County on Raccoon Valley Road at Claxton.

The seller of this delightful country home will consider a lease purchase, call me for details.

Here’s my weekly report on Knox County real estate transfers. I’m coming to you today from San Diego, California where I’m attending the National Association of Realtors (NAR) annual Conference & Expo. It’s been a whirlwind week here of great learning experiences and a huge trade show of new real estate products. I’m heading home early Monday morning.

Below is the Knox County Register of Deeds real estate transfers for the week just passed.

Again this week, no surprises. There were 162 Knox County Real Estate transfers last week with the majority in the lower price points. According to National Association of Realtors statistics first time home buyers have been as much as 45% of the total market.

Recently Congress passed a bill extending the $8,000 tax credit until April 30th of 2010 which should help continue the current sales trends. Hopefully the addition to a similar credit for current homeowners will encourage that group to re-enter the market in the higher prices ranges when they sell an existing home they own.A recent report from NAR says short sales and foreclosures also continue to be a very significant percentage of sales.

“The annual survey of home buyers (not REALTORS®), suggests that the first-time buyer accounts for 45 percent of all buyers. The number of distressed sales, those that are short sales or foreclosed sales, made up 29 percent of all sales in September. It accounted for 45 to 50 percent of all sales late last year and in the early months of this year.”

Here’s what NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun said recently about the housing market:

“We have to be mindful that the tax credit is not only about people in the market. Despite spectacular gains in the stock market, principally from the financial sector recovery, most of the 75 million home-owning families have more wealth tied to their homes. Home values could soon turn consistently positive and help the broad base of middle-class families, but we are not there yet. We’re getting early indications of price stabilization, but we need a steady supply of qualified buyers to meaningfully bring inventories down and return us to a period of normal, steady price growth and to fully remove consumer fears, which would then revive the broader economy. Without a firm foundation for middle-class wealth recovery, the post-recession economic growth likely will be one of the weakest in U.S. history.“

Please feel free to comment or ask questions about any portion of the Knoxville area real estate market. If I don’t have the answer I do have access to some of the best sources available and will get the answer for you right away.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is the ‘go to’ place to search for all Knoxville area houses, condos, land, lots, and commercial properties. Give me a call or email if you find some you would like to take a look at.

World class screened porch on this 4 bedroom Gulf Park beauty, move in condition.

Another week has passed in Knoxville, Tennessee and here’s the passed week’s real estate transfer report form the Knox County Register of Deeds for Knoxville area and Farragut real estate sales.

It appears from the statistics below there were 160 Knoxville area real estate transfers recorded, the breakdown remains typical of the year, we’ve averaging around 150 transfers per week to date in 2009.

The vast majority of sales are lower end properties with the higher end very slow to move. The 2 sales over 1 million dollars were the Lanesborough and Derby Run apartment complexes in the town of Farragut so no single family residential sales over a million bucks this week.

Some good news for the Knoxville market for a change, Congress passed an extension of the $8,000 tax credit for qualifying buyers.

The credit was scheduled to expire at the end of November but it is now officially extended until April 30th of 2010 and buyers still have an additional 60 days past that date to get their home purchase closed. With financing and appraisals taking much longer than normal in today’s Knoxville area real estate market you sometimes need every one of those 60 days to get your transaction to the settlement table.

Some additional changes to the tax credit were that it has now been expanded to include current homeowners who sell their existing home and then buy again. They are now eligible for a $6,500 tax credit when buying if they have lived in the home they sell for at least 5 of the past 8 years.

Knoxville Homes For Sale

Knoxville Recently Sold Homes

Some new limits on income (higher) and requirements when filing for the credit, I wrote a recent post about that here.

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This spectacular log home sets amid 6.9 tabletop level acres in a beautiful area of the Cumberland Plateau. $355,000

Congress passed a bill extending the current $8,000 tax credit for persons buying a home who have not owned one in the past three years that was their principal residents. President Obama signed it this past Friday, November 6th, so it’s now official.

But the new bill has an addition for current Knoxville, TN homeowners who want to sell their current home and buy another. If you own your home now, sell it and buy another before April 30th of 2010 you probably qualify for a $6,500 tax credit like the ones buyers have enjoyed this year. ($3250 if you’re married and file separately).

As long as you have a sales contract dated April 30, 2010, you have up to 60 days past that date to get the newly purchased home closed.

The new extension also increased the income limits for all home-buyers. Single buyers can earn up to $125,000 and married couples can earn as much as $225,000.

Before there was no limitation on the cost of your new home; it’s now a maximum sales price of $800,000. I suppose the rationale for this is that the former income limits of $75,000 for a single taxpayer and $150,000 for married buyers was a self limiting mechanism that did not need to be spelled out. Now that selling an existing home enters into the mix with the potential for equity from selling an existing home, I guess Congress felt they needed some sort of purchase price cap.

The income limits were increased in hopes the new higher ceilings will stimulate the purchase of more expensive home. Before the existing tax credit was mostly driving the sales of lower end homes priced at $150,000 and below. With the income limits now increased and current homeowners allowed to participate too that should raise the average sales price of Knoxville and Farragut homes bought with this program.

To cut down on some fraudulent tax returns submitted by taxpayers who did not qualify for the tax credit buyers now have to submit some documentation as proof you actually bought a home and that you qualify for the credit. I believe a copy of your HUD 1 form (closing statement) would qualify as proof but you should check with the IRS or your tax preparer to make sure.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George told a House panel that more than 19,000 people filed 2008 tax returns claiming the credit for homes they had not yet purchased. George said his office had identified another $500 million in claims, by some 74,000 taxpayers, where there were indications of prior home ownership.

He told a House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee that they also found 580 taxpayers under the age of 18 who claimed $4 million in first-time home buyer credit. One was 4 years old.

“Some of our findings, while preliminary, are somewhat disturbing,” George said. Among the most striking instances of fraud include 4-year-olds, non-U.S. citizens and IRS employees inappropriately claiming the benefit, he said.

Below is a chart from the National Association of REALTORS® comparing the new tax credit extension to the current one and spelling out the terms and conditions.

Comparison chart showing the existing bill compared to the new, extended version.

So if you’ve been sitting on the fence waiting to buy or, if you couldn’t qualify because of needing some cash for closing costs, this new law levels the playing field for both new buyers and current homeowners who want to sell and buy.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is a great place to get started looking at Knoxville and Farragut TN homes and listings for sale. Updated daily and NO REGISTRATION required to search to your heart’s content.

I would be delighted to help you get your current home sold and then buy another either in the Knoxville area or I can refer you to another top notch REALTOR in the city you’re moving to.

Please call or email with any questions about the tax credit or any buying and selling questions.

Knoxville, TN real estate sales and listings

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Sellers will consider lease purchase for this extensively redone home, 5 minutes to downtown Knoxville.

Below is a chart prepared by the National Association of REALTORS ® comparing the new changes to the Homebuyer Tax Credit.

The biggest change is that current Homeowners are now eligible if they sell their current homes and then buy AFTER the date of enactment of this extension which is November 6th, 2009.

Comparison of existing tax credit to extended and expanded version

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com has all of the Knoxville TN area listings to view. Updated daily and NO REGISTRATION required to view home.

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* NOTE * As of November 1 Congress has not yet officially extended this tax credit; it is still set to expire at the end of this month (November). However confidence is high that it will be extended in some form and probably expanded.

“Senate Dems on Board with Credit Extension
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) says Senate Democrats have agreed to extend the first-time home buyer tax credit. The latest version extends the program to home sales signed — not closed — by April 30. Purchasers would have another 60 days to close the sale. The credit will also be expanded to include so-called step-up buyers who have lived in their current home for at least five years.

The credit would be cut nearly 10 percent to a $7,290 cap. Income eligibility for first-time home buyers would stay the same, but it would rise for step-up buyers to $125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

Source: Bloomberg News, Dawn Kopecki and Ryan Donmoyer (10/27/2009)”

KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is the ‘go to’ place to see all Knoxville, TN area listings for sale.