Knoxville Tennessee Real Estate Blog

The July sales figures are out from the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors so let’s see how the Knoxville area real estate market did last month.

I see a total of 1,044 sales reported in all price ranges, days on market (time to sell) 118 days, the median price of a 3 bedroom home holding pretty steady at $137,300, 4 bedrooms $267,000, and $144,500 for condos.

Here’s what this past July looks like compared to other years.

Knoxville, Tennessee July real estate sales in all price ranges

Even though July sales in 2005 were a bit higher than 2006, 2006 was really the BIG year in Knoxville area sales so comparing apples to apples, this July’s sales are down 40% over that year.

Here’s what the first half of this year looks like compared to previous years.

Knoxville area first half sales compared to other years

Compared to our peak year, 2006, total sales for the first half of 2009 are still down around 50%.

It’s still hard to draw any meaningful conclusions about a trend of any sort from the figures because historically, real estate sales have a very strong seasonal factor with the peak sales months being June, July, and August and the lower sales months being the winter months. When the August sales figures come out next month I’ll do a comparison of the three peak months to previous years.

The big question on most people’s minds are “when is the market going to turn around and/or pick up again?” Best guess is probably not this year or maybe even 2010 but very likely in 2011 barring unforeseen circumstances.

For sellers my advice remains the same: Competitive pricing, put your house in the best possible condition, consider some buyer concessions such as paying closing costs, temporary rate buydowns, and be prepared to negotiate.

For buyers it’s a great market for you. Lowest interest I can ever remember, huge supply of homes on the market, and for those that have not owned a home in the past 3 years, up to an $8,000 tax credit from the government to help you even further in buying. However that tax credit runs out at the end of November which means you need to have a house under contract by at least the middle of October to make sure you get it.

www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com is a great place for both buyers and sellers to looks at homes for sale. Sellers can see what your competition looks like and buyers can search for their new home here.