Real Estate market in East TN

[VMH2507]

Originally Posted by CouponJack

Just be careful about realtor's who tell you "prices are rising" in certain markets. This is an argument promoted by the NAR to give the appearance certain markets are doing better than they really are.

When you examine a certain market ALWAYS check out YOY trends in inventory, # of sales, & foreclosure rates. These are way more important than "price trends" because as an example, Charlotte area inventory #'s are way up and # of units sold are way down, however "prices are stable" only because higher end homes are mainly being built which skews the #'s.

I did not make this up. This advice was given to me from a trusted reatlor in the business who does drink the kool-aid of the NAR.

I figured that would be your response -- that's why I went back and looked at Atlanta area houses in a couple of areas that I am very familiar with. It appears that at least those realtor's are giving straight info on the Atlanta area. And these are areas where very definitely high end homes are located -- Buckhead, Dunwoody, Grayson.
In my check of Realtordotcom house listings for the Oneida TN area there were ~ 20 total listings (some were duplicates) of which only 3 or 4 were over 200K and none appeared to be foreclosures. The reason I started this thread was to get feedback on how long homes usually stay on the market and if that had changed in the last year. The area is definitely rural with very limited employment possibilities. It appears to be an area where retired people might move for the beautiful scenery and weather. My friend said that a new subdivision of moderately priced ($100-$150K) homes was being built. The area definitely does not appear to be one where there would be a big runup in prices.
I am familiar with the N GA area (Ellijay, Blue Ridge, etc) where there has been a tremendous runup in prices, but this was fueled in large part by people trying to escape Atlanta. I don't have the feeling that Oneida fits the same pattern.