Gatlinburg Real Estate Blog

When we reported the initial Gatlinburg area residential real estate sales tally a week ago I was concerned that our local real estate market might have lost a little bit of momentum. After more agencies have gotten their sales tallies updated, this does not appear to be the case at all. In fact, August has turned out to be one of the stronger months of 2012 and our positive streak has been strongly reinforced. See for yourself by reviewing this updated table:

When we reported the initial Gatlinburg area residential real estate sales tally a week ago I was concerned that our local real estate market might have lost a little bit of momentum. After more agencies have gotten their sales tallies updated, this does not appear to be the case at all. In fact, August has turned out to be one of the stronger months of 2012 and our positive streak has been strongly reinforced. See for yourself by reviewing this updated table:

As usual, many Smoky Mountain Area real estate firms were late to report their sales for December.  Because of this we are just now getting a clearer picture of the results for not only December but for all of 2009.  As the residential sales numbers do come in the magnitude of the turnaround in our Gatlinburg real estate market becomes clearer.  Here are the latest numbers: This table shows that we now have a string of 6 consecutive months of positive comparisons versus the year ago period.  If you look at the same data in graph form it looks like this: The only part of this chart that concerns me a bit is the dip from November to December 2009.  While the dead of winter is generally slow for Gatlinburg area real estate sales the chart would look a little better to me if December pumps up just a little more (which it probably will).  Stay tuned as we head into this new decade!

As usual, many Smoky Mountain Area real estate firms were late to report their sales for December.  Because of this we are just now getting a clearer picture of the results for not only December but for all of 2009.  As the residential sales numbers do come in the magnitude of the turnaround in our Gatlinburg real estate market becomes clearer.  Here are the latest numbers: This table shows that we now have a string of 6 consecutive months of positive comparisons versus the year ago period.  If you look at the same data in graph form it looks like this: The only part of this chart that concerns me a bit is the dip from November to December 2009.  While the dead of winter is generally slow for Gatlinburg area real estate sales the chart would look a little better to me if December pumps up just a little more (which it probably will).  Stay tuned as we head into this new decade!

Months ago I blogged that the winds of change were blowing and that activity was increasing in our Smoky Mountain real estate market.  During the second half of the year, as each month's residential sales were above the appalling monthly tally recorded in 2008, it began to become clear that our market was actually rebounding.  In November of this year, area real estate agents actually had twice the Smoky Mountain residential real estate sales that were recorded in the truly awful month of November, 2008 which would prove to be the bottom of the market. Now, on January 1st, 2010 I can report with certainty that sales for 2009 did in fact exceed the moribund level recorded in 2008.  With a total of 108 residential sales already recorded for December 2009 the total sales in 2009 already slightly exceed those reported in 2008.  As usual, all reported sales won't be in for at least a couple of weeks so the final number will likely ...

Months ago I blogged that the winds of change were blowing and that activity was increasing in our Smoky Mountain real estate market.  During the second half of the year, as each month's residential sales were above the appalling monthly tally recorded in 2008, it began to become clear that our market was actually rebounding.  In November of this year, area real estate agents actually had twice the Smoky Mountain residential real estate sales that were recorded in the truly awful month of November, 2008 which would prove to be the bottom of the market. Now, on January 1st, 2010 I can report with certainty that sales for 2009 did in fact exceed the moribund level recorded in 2008.  With a total of 108 residential sales already recorded for December 2009 the total sales in 2009 already slightly exceed those reported in 2008.  As usual, all reported sales won't be in for at least a couple of weeks so the final number will likel...

October Sales are Down! Although several currently unreported sales will assuredly be added over the next few days, it seems a certainty that October's residential sales will be the lowest of the year. Sadly October's Gatlinburg area residential real estate sales will likely end up being the worst in many years. Here are the preliminary results which I have compiled from the data provided by the Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors: Interestingly I had the best month of my year with 9 closed transactions and we already have 5 pending sales for November. How is it that we are so fortunate? By the grace of God we were several years ago able to foresee the problems that our real estate market would have and created relationships with foreclosure management companies. These foreclosure properties are now accounting for many (if not yet most) of the few sales that are being reported in the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville real estate markets. If you are looking for a g...

October Sales are Down! Although several currently unreported sales will assuredly be added over the next few days, it seems a certainty that October's residential sales will be the lowest of the year. Sadly October's Gatlinburg area residential real estate sales will likely end up being the worst in many years. Here are the preliminary results which I have compiled from the data provided by the Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors: Interestingly I had the best month of my year with 9 closed transactions and we already have 5 pending sales for November. How is it that we are so fortunate? By the grace of God we were several years ago able to foresee the problems that our real estate market would have and created relationships with foreclosure management companies. These foreclosure properties are now accounting for many (if not yet most) of the few sales that are being reported in the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville real estate markets. If you are looking for a g...

New Statistics Available for Gatlinburg Area Real Estate (Bad News - Good News) I have, through the Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors MLS database, compiled a very thorough (possibly too much information) summary of year to date sales for our local real estate market. The report can be viewed on our primary website at this link . Although you really have to be a numbers fan to appreciate this sort of thing, the data is clear. Real estate sales for Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and all of our market as a total are down sharply when compared to the same period a year ago. The good news is that I am having my most productive period of the year during October. With 10 sales closed or pending October will in fact be better than any two other months of 2008. Why is October so much stronger? The answer is that the banks and other sellers are finally starting to get prices right and these properties are now selling. It is still a great time to be a buyer and an extremel...

New Statistics Available for Gatlinburg Area Real Estate (Bad News - Good News) I have, through the Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors MLS database, compiled a very thorough (possibly too much information) summary of year to date sales for our local real estate market. The report can be viewed on our primary website at this link . Although you really have to be a numbers fan to appreciate this sort of thing, the data is clear. Real estate sales for Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and all of our market as a total are down sharply when compared to the same period a year ago. The good news is that I am having my most productive period of the year during October. With 10 sales closed or pending October will in fact be better than any two other months of 2008. Why is October so much stronger? The answer is that the banks and other sellers are finally starting to get prices right and these properties are now selling. It is still a great time to be a buyer and an extremel...

Website Activity Up Again! One of the best ways I have found to predict future Gatlinburg area real estate business activity levels is by the level of activity at our primary website: http://www.gatlinburghomes.com/ . During the past week the level of activity, as measured by total page views, continued to trend higher: If you look closely at the recent weeks totals you can see that page views at our website appear to have bottomed during March of this year and have been trending (for the most part) higher ever since. With the notable exception of the last week in July and first week in August the trend has been almost a straight line as shown above by the line I added. While there are never guarantees in this business we can tell an increase in general activity levels and I did put two more of my listings under contract this week as pending sales. In my next post I'll write about what makes properties sell in this still very challenging market. If you are looking for an opportunit...

Website Activity Up Again! One of the best ways I have found to predict future Gatlinburg area real estate business activity levels is by the level of activity at our primary website: http://www.gatlinburghomes.com/ . During the past week the level of activity, as measured by total page views, continued to trend higher: If you look closely at the recent weeks totals you can see that page views at our website appear to have bottomed during March of this year and have been trending (for the most part) higher ever since. With the notable exception of the last week in July and first week in August the trend has been almost a straight line as shown above by the line I added. While there are never guarantees in this business we can tell an increase in general activity levels and I did put two more of my listings under contract this week as pending sales. In my next post I'll write about what makes properties sell in this still very challenging market. If you are looking for an opportunit...

Home Buyers Acting On Lower Prices The following article was published by the Realtor Magazine's online website yesterday and has some good information. Although Tennessee isn't mentioned and neither is Gatlinburg or Sevier County you might find it interesting. All data is from the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales rose from the first quarter in 13 states, largely from buyers responding to discounted home prices, according to the latest quarterly survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Nearly one-quarter of metropolitan areas showed rising home prices in the second quarter from a year ago, with greatly mixed conditions continuing around the country.In the second quarter, 35 out of 150 metropolitan statistical areas 1 showed gains in median existing single-family home prices from the second quarter of last year, while 115 had price declines. NAR’s track of metro area home prices dates back to 1979. NAR President Richard Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX ...

Home Buyers Acting On Lower Prices The following article was published by the Realtor Magazine's online website yesterday and has some good information. Although Tennessee isn't mentioned and neither is Gatlinburg or Sevier County you might find it interesting. All data is from the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales rose from the first quarter in 13 states, largely from buyers responding to discounted home prices, according to the latest quarterly survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Nearly one-quarter of metropolitan areas showed rising home prices in the second quarter from a year ago, with greatly mixed conditions continuing around the country.In the second quarter, 35 out of 150 metropolitan statistical areas 1 showed gains in median existing single-family home prices from the second quarter of last year, while 115 had price declines. NAR’s track of metro area home prices dates back to 1979. NAR President Richard Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX ...

Good Riddance July! - Updated 8/18/2008 Although the dust hasn't quite settled it is safe to say that the month of July wasn't a barnburner for Gatlinburg area real estate sales. In fact, those of us in the business of marketing Sevier County real estate are glad to see July end and are already looking nervously toward August 2008. May's blip in activity was not followed by another up month in June and any chance of saying that sales volume was trending up has pretty much been dashed by the miserable performance of our Smoky Mountain real estate market during July. Here is the latest summary of residential real estate unit sales for the Gatlinburg/PigeonForge/Sevierville/Seymour/Kodak areas as reported by the Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors MLS database which was used to create this summary: I can best summarize our market's situation like this: Buyers are understandably reluctant to make offers in the face of the media's reporting of the state of the e...

Good Riddance July! - Updated 8/18/2008 Although the dust hasn't quite settled it is safe to say that the month of July wasn't a barnburner for Gatlinburg area real estate sales. In fact, those of us in the business of marketing Sevier County real estate are glad to see July end and are already looking nervously toward August 2008. May's blip in activity was not followed by another up month in June and any chance of saying that sales volume was trending up has pretty much been dashed by the miserable performance of our Smoky Mountain real estate market during July. Here is the latest summary of residential real estate unit sales for the Gatlinburg/PigeonForge/Sevierville/Seymour/Kodak areas as reported by the Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors MLS database which was used to create this summary: I can best summarize our market's situation like this: Buyers are understandably reluctant to make offers in the face of the media's reporting of the state of the e...

Ten Most Challenging Major Real Estate Markets The hardest places to sell homes are naturally those with falling prices as well as a large inventory of unsold homes. Forbes magazine, which examined markets all over the country, concluded that Florida has the most markets that are really in the doldrums. There are several FL cities that are overbuilt, saddled with lousy loans and flat sales. Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based real estate appraisal company that assisted with the analysis, says it is hard for a city to climb out of a slowdown because in the best of circumstances there's generally a three- to six-month lag between the time buyers start putting a serious dent into the inventory and the time when prices start to improve. Here are the 10 markets Forbes says are the most challenging: Miami Orlando Phoenix Tampa Los Angeles Washington, D.C. Chicago Baltimore San Diego Denver Sources: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (04/15/08) If Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, ...

Ten Most Challenging Major Real Estate Markets The hardest places to sell homes are naturally those with falling prices as well as a large inventory of unsold homes. Forbes magazine, which examined markets all over the country, concluded that Florida has the most markets that are really in the doldrums. There are several FL cities that are overbuilt, saddled with lousy loans and flat sales. Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based real estate appraisal company that assisted with the analysis, says it is hard for a city to climb out of a slowdown because in the best of circumstances there's generally a three- to six-month lag between the time buyers start putting a serious dent into the inventory and the time when prices start to improve. Here are the 10 markets Forbes says are the most challenging: Miami Orlando Phoenix Tampa Los Angeles Washington, D.C. Chicago Baltimore San Diego Denver Sources: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (04/15/08) If Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, ...

Never Challenge Worse! I believe it was the comedian Bill Cosby that first said "Never challenge worse" as in, some situation can't get any worse. I have borrowed the phrase and use it occasionally to remind myself that things aren't as bad as they could be - they could always get worse. Although the final numbers will likely be slightly better as some end of the month sales may still be unreported, in March, the pace of residential sales in our East Tennessee real estate market definitely got worse : While the drop sequentially from February to March was only 2 units the more important ratio is when this March is compared with March of 2007 and 2006. As you can see by the table above, our residential market's performance in March of 2008 is nothing like previous year's March sales and this is more than a little troubling. Of the 106 residential units sold, only 66 were Sevier County properties with the balance being from surrounding areas including Knox, Blou...

Never Challenge Worse! I believe it was the comedian Bill Cosby that first said "Never challenge worse" as in, some situation can't get any worse. I have borrowed the phrase and use it occasionally to remind myself that things aren't as bad as they could be - they could always get worse. Although the final numbers will likely be slightly better as some end of the month sales may still be unreported, in March, the pace of residential sales in our East Tennessee real estate market definitely got worse : While the drop sequentially from February to March was only 2 units the more important ratio is when this March is compared with March of 2007 and 2006. As you can see by the table above, our residential market's performance in March of 2008 is nothing like previous year's March sales and this is more than a little troubling. Of the 106 residential units sold, only 66 were Sevier County properties with the balance being from surrounding areas including Knox, Blou...