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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• U.S. in grips of long-lasting cold spell (cnn.com)
• Eastern U.S. sees ‘icebox’ conditions (msnbc.msn.com)
• The nation’s weather (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Weather forcast (liveactivecultures.net)

My newest listing, 1228 Saybrook Lane, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Great 1 1/2 story with main level garge and main level master

4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and over 2,400 square feet of living space. This updated home has new kitchen cabinets with granite counter tops, a soaring 2 story fireplace, a huge multi-purpose room downstairs and a walk out basement opening to a ’secret garden’ area that’s great for relaxing or reading a good book.

New kitchen cabinets and granite counter tops, a rare find in this price range.

elevated view of living room from second floor

Click here for a VisualTour of this beautiful home.

A “Featured Home” at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com

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On a recent, chilly Thursday evening Knoxville area bloggers were treated to a special evening with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (KSO) at the Tennessee Theatre on Gay Street.

This was the Symphony’s second “Bloggers Night” and my first. It was a great evening with 2 hours of delightful music from Bach, Mozart, and Mendelssohn.

The Mozart concerto featured Pianist Navah Perlman on the piano. Ms Perlman is a very accomplished musician and gave a wonderful performance. It was amazing to watch her fingers fly across the keyboard and produce her beautiful music.

A pre-concert chat was held on stage with Maestro Lucas Richman giving a preview of the upcoming performance. Ms Perlman joined him briefly to talk about her work.

I was pleasantly surprised to find one of my fellow Realtors, Jennifer Crake, is a musician with the Orchestra. Jennifer is Second Horn as well as a Knoxville Realtor.

Also Knoxville blogger Katy Gawne is the principal violinist and de facto KSO blogger.

The first piece was Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major for Strings and Continuo, BWV 1048. Frankly I don’t have a clue what all that stuff means but I do know it was some very beautiful music by the Strings (that’s violin, viola, cello, and bass)  which I enjoyed immensely.

Second was Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 for Piano featuring the talented Ms Perlman and the Orchestra. They seemed to mesh very well with the Orchestra’s music complimenting her piano. Another beautiful work.

After a brief intermission we heard Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, the Italian Symphony; I think this was my favorite. I enjoyed hearing the oboes in the background punctuated by the timpani (commonly known as kettledrums).

Here’s a link to KSO’s podcast as well as an interview with Ms Perlman by Maestro Richman so you can enjoy some beautiful music and hear a couple of talented musicians talking shop.

After the concert there was a reception in the Glenn Miller room downstairs for all the bloggers. Several of the Orchestra members joined us along with Maestro Richman who struck me as a pretty cool guy. Ms Perlman also made a brief appearance.

KSO Maestro Lucas Richman and Featured Performer Navah Perlman at the KSO Blogger's Night reception following the concert.

Knoxville area bloggers file into the Glenn Miller room for the Blogger's Night reception. It was great to be able to see and meet in person the people you know online.

“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”

Johann Sebastian Bach, composer, 1685-1750

Mr. Bach I could not agree more.

Thanks to KSO for a delightful evening and a wonderful performance.

Image via WikipediaMost every fall we take one of the annual color cruises on nearby Norris Lake. Operated and narrated by a ranger from Norris Dam State Park, these cruises take you places you can only access by boat.

A local friends of the park group donated this nifty pontoon boat they use for the cruises.

the good ship Eleanor

This past Friday was a rainy, overcast, blustery fall day in east Tennessee but the fall colors were ready to view so off we went with our ranger/guide Lucinda and two other hardy souls from nearby Knoxville.

The colors were not at peak just yet but were very beautiful never the less. Some of the Maple trees were showing their usual spectacular red colors.

the Tennessee Valley Authority routinely drops the water levels of most all their lakes in the fall to make room for spring rains and flood control downstream. Norris lakes level routinely is dropped around 20 feet but since it is such a deep lake the average water depth is still around 75 feet.

Norris Dam was completed around 1936 and impounds the Powell and Clinch Rivers to form Norris Lake with almost 800 miles of shoreline. It’s a very popular attraction for visitors from all over.

On other cruises we have seen lots of wildlife from Bald Eagles, deer, ducks, and more, but this trip we only saw two mallards passing over and one lonely Belted Kingfisher on the bank.

It was very peaceful on the lake, we only saw one other boat with a lone fisherman trying his luck.

Now is a great time to be looking for a home in the greater Knoxville area so you can enjoy places like Norris Dam State Park and Knoxvilles many other family friendly attractions. Knoxville Home Center is a great place to look for that new home.

Back when I got my first Palm Pilot I loved the infra red application that let you ‘beam’ addresses and information to another PP user.

My Treo cell phone has the same application and I find it very convenient to simply beam my business card electronically into someone else’s cell phone.

Unfortunately there is a flaw in that application; both parties need to have infra red capability in their devices to make it work.

Not to worry, some smart people have came up with a solution.

MyDropCard.com will email your electronic business card to anyone’s email account by simply sending their email address via a text message to Drop Card.

The account, like most of the new cool stuff, is free.

1. Set up your drop card account with your contact information. (you can have both business and personal) and you can also include your firm, name, websites,blog, social networks, and most anything else you choose.
2. To send it to someone just get their email address and text it to 41411 in this format: “drop name@theiremail.com (that’s a space between “drop” and “name”, a real space, not an underline _)
3. Drop Card will forward to their email account your contact information like this:

In fact stars shine over Knoxville every night but you usually can see only the brightest ones because of all the city lights.

For the next two Saturdays (July 12th & 19th) at 8:45 pm the Knoxville Observers Astronomy Club will be hosting a stargazing party at Norris Dam State Park.

This is the Milky Way Galaxy undimmed by city lights

If you’ve never been stargazing you’re in for a big and pleasant surprise. The night sky has literally thousands of stars and planets visible to the naked eye when you get in a dark place with no nearby light pollution sources.

I still remember laying out in fields at night as a kid staring up at the stars. We lived out in the country near Chattanooga, Tennessee and each night around our house was a stargazers delight.

The Knoxville Observers astronomy club will present a short video starting at 8:45 pm followed by everyone going out into the parking lot by the Norris Dam State Park swimming pool and observing all the stars and planets.

A stargazing evening is fun for all ages and educational for the kids without them even knowing it, and best of all, it’s FREE, my most favorite price.

So pack up the family, pack some snacks for the kids, and head on up to Norris Dam State Park this Saturday; I guarantee you that you will come away amazed at the sights you’ll see.

The Knoxville Observers will have several telescopes available to look at stars, planets, and the moon.

Seeing how red Mars actually is and observing the rings around the planet Saturn is a great experience for all, and seeing the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time is absolutely amazing; it’s like a river of stars flowing across the night skies.

Click here for directions to Norris Dam State Park; it’s only about a 20 minute drive from most parts of Knoxville and Knox County.

I noticed in today’s Originator Times, a website for mortgage loan originators, that Fannie Mae is loosening up their guidelines for down payment policies by going to a national, single down payment policy to replace the now required higher down payments in markets where home prices are declining. Knoxville, Tennessee BTW is not one of these markets; our home prices increased about 2% over last year’s prices.

However that still does not make them competitive with FHA insured mortgages in the greater Knoxville, TN area because of their “risk based” interest rates and higher mortgage insurance premiums for borrowers getting a mortgage for more than 80% of the value of the home they’re buying.

Current Fannie Mae requires you to accept a higher interest rate for lower credit scores, which translates into higher monthly payments, if your credit score is under 720 which is really a pretty decent score. If your FICO score is below 620 you would be looking at an interest rate over 7% today for a Fannie Mae loan.

In the Knoxville area the new FHA loan limits are up to a $271,000 sales price and you can still qualify with a credit score as low as 580!

If buying a home in the Knoxville or Farragut area is in your future I invite you to call me and let’s talk about how we can make that happen for you.

There is a big selection of homes for sale, interest rates are both attractive and available (contrary to what you hear in the news), and it’s a buyer’s market in Knoxville, Tennessee.

You can view Knoxville, Farragut, Maryville, Oak Ridge, and other area homes for sale on my website, www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com.