The State of the State
(or at least Sevier County, TN)

Being a little bit of a numbers guy I was on the Chess Team in High School. We didn't get any of the social attention that the football team members did. In fact the cheerleaders NEVER attended a single match, let alone cheer -and Yes, I'm still just a little bitter. In the long run however the smart guys and girls do eventually win. I'm still a numbers person and spend a lot of time analyzing our East Tennessee real estate market looking for trends and opportunities. With the latest version of our MLS software it is easier than ever for real estate brokers (even those who weren't on the Chess Team) to analyze our market. The following is a portion of our MLS system's market analysis page:
Note the 907 new listings entered by our local real estate agents in the last 30 days and compare that to the 172 properties sold during the same period. You can see that the market is still creating inventory much faster than it is absorbing it - by a ratio of over 5 to 1! I have been very much blessed as I have 3 sales in the last 30 days which compares okay with my 4 new listings, especially when you consider the fact that I also have 4 pending sales. While I certainly have been blessed, many agents (and agencies) haven't. I am at a pace to have 60 sales this year which is off from my personal best achieved in 2005 of 66 sales but much better than 2007's anemic 50 transactions. I really should count my blessings as the average agent in 2007 had only about 4 transactions for the entire year. This means that they would have been better off working at the understaffed Gatlinburg McDonalds restaurant if they could get the night shift bonus. Many agents have in fact left the business and many more will likely leave during the next six months if the market continues to be slow.

If you are interested in buying or selling Gatlinburg area real estate, which includes Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Kodak, and Cosby, TN please contact us. We have no interest in a career at McDonalds asking patrons if they want fries with that hamburger...

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