Real Estate Market Condition (Knoxville, Oak Ridge: home sales, neighborhoods, buy)

[LilCabinGirl]

Is the real estate market really as slow here as I keep hearing? We went cruising around this Sunday looking at open houses and we saw other people looking too. The prices seem kind of high though for the income potential in the area. I don't get the feeling that there are a whole lot of serious sellers. I also don't understand why real estate is more expensive below Kingston Pike than up around Middlebrook Pike (Cedar Bluff). Any thoughts?

[Eat]

Location, location, location.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by LilCabinGirl

Is the real estate market really as slow here as I keep hearing? We went cruising around this Sunday looking at open houses and we saw other people looking too. The prices seem kind of high though for the income potential in the area. I don't get the feeling that there are a whole lot of serious sellers. I also don't understand why real estate is more expensive below Kingston Pike than up around Middlebrook Pike (Cedar Bluff). Any thoughts?

I'll give it a whack. All of these people moving to Tennessee are driving up the prices for homes that aren't worth what they're selling for. You know, if Person X can afford a $300,000 bigger home after selling a $400,000 smaller home in their former state, then Joe Tennessee is going to put his $250,000 home on the market for $300,000 and those suckers will buy it because they don't have to work for lower wages to pay it off.

Does that sound like what happened in other places years ago?

[Barking Spider]

I can say that it has been very very slow the past few months and only in the past week or so seemed to have picked up a little. My business is directly tied to home sales, so I have a sense of what the market is doing.

Like Eat said, prices are really location based. I really don't have an idea of prices in specific areas. The cost of a home has nothing to do with my business, so I don't keep really pay attention to what something costs.

[goodbyehollywood]

Originally Posted by LilCabinGirl

I don't get the feeling that there are a whole lot of serious sellers. I also don't understand why real estate is more expensive below Kingston Pike than up around Middlebrook Pike (Cedar Bluff). Any thoughts?

Well, it seems that most cities have a dividing line along a major artery, and Kingston Pike is Knoxville's. The area south of the Pike (or the interstate) is closer to the lake; thus, choice property. Most of the nicer neighborhoods are congregated there, and many command a premium. Is it worth it? That's a personal choice. There are some nice neighborhoods on the north side of the Pike, too.

As for serious sellers, I think anybody with their house on the market would like to sell. And I think most are smart enough to price within the comps in a slow market. But the panic selling that has hit some areas is rare here. Firesaling is primarily driven by risky ARMs resetting and those were the exception rather than the rule in Knoxville. I have not found sellers here open to low balling. They want to sell at a fair price snugly within the comps and if they can't, most will wait it out. We are experiencing a relatively normal cyclical market here, and that is the prudent decision. If you're looking for more of a bargain, I would look for a relocating seller or one eager to downsize.

Good luck!

[Eat]

I think incomes here a lot higher than most people think. Blue collar wages are pretty low, but there are a number of corporate headquarters here, with their salaried staffs. Then there are the DOE complexes in the Oak Ridge area. They employ around 15,000 people, most of whom get decent pay. Add in UT and local entreprenaurship and you get a pretty solid economic base.

And then there are us retirees, for good or bad.