By DON FENLEY Pending sales jumped 15.1% in March on a 113.3% increases in the number of new contracts in the top bracket of the move-up market.   Although demand – as monitored b… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – There were 88 area mortgaged properties with new foreclosure filings during the first three months of this year. That was an increase of four from the… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES – Local housing affordability has made its best gains in a year on the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank’s Homeownership Tracker. The monitor is a little diff… Read More

By DON FENLEY Home prices in East Tennessee and both Tri-Cities metro areas were rated as overvalued in the latest study of the 403 largest markets tracked by Moody’s Analytics. Kingsp… Read More

By DON FENLEY Unlike the existing home market that’s slogging into prime season with a 17% sales increase, new construction sales are booming. So far this year sales are double what th… Read More

By DON FENLEY It’s official. Spring in here, and pending home sales are perking up from January’s lackluster performance. They’re not the only thing looking up in a market… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIERS, Tenn. – Although there probably won’t be a big dip in mortgage rates for the prime home buying and selling season, the season is taking shape with guar… Read More

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By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – Continued population growth is what was expected and delivered by the Census population projection this week. All eight regional counties gained popul… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn – Although new foreclosure filings are creeping higher, they remain below the region’s historic levels because of equity gains from the post-pandem… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES – Tenn. – There were two $1 million plus sales last month. Both were more about the land than the homes. At the same time, overall luxury home market mad… Read More

By DON FENLEY It’s accepted knowledge that the Tri-Cities region is a good place to live and invest in a home. Equally important, but with less media hoopla, is how little risk the reg… Read More

By DON FENLEY The local housing market is perking up after January’s lackluster start. Overall prices are running $107,600 above the pre-pandemic median price, but the price growth rat… Read More

By DON FENLEY It’s beginning to look like Tri-Cities area existing home sales have broken a 26-month annualized sales slump. Annualized monthly sales increased for the third straight m… Read More

By DON FENLEY The regions’ million-dollar home sales club kicked off 2024 with four sales. It would have been six, but two dropped below the $1 million mark when owners reduced their a… Read More

WASHINGTON – More than 85% of metro markets (189 out of 221) registered home price increases in the fourth quarter of 2023 as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped from 7.79% to 6.61… Read More

By DON FENLEY Housing analysts expect 10,408 Tri-Cities area residents will return to the market if mortgage rates settle at 6.5% in 2024. The two included charts from the National Associati… Read More

BY DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, TN – Investors are getting more raw profit, but the number of single-family and condo home flips is mirroring the dynamic seen in the existing housing market… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, TN – Pending sales were up 8% from Nov. last year following a 1% increase in Oct. The Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) Pending Sales Index… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, TN – Condos barely held onto a sales upswing in November while prices continued falling from their September peak. According to the Northeast Tennessee Associ… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – Sullivan and Washington counties rank among the least vulnerable to housing market declines in Tennessee and the nation. The rating from ATTOM, a lead… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – The top of November’s luxury existing home market was a $3.6 million cash sale in Johnson Co. Seven other million-dollar closings nudged the yea… Read More

By DON FENLEY The downward arch of area home sales eased in November while prices declined for the second straight month. There were 600 closing in the Northeast Tennessee Association of Rea… Read More

By DON FENLEY Once upon a time, cash sales accounted for half – or more – of the Tri-Cities area single-family existing home sales. Despite the “once upon a time” int… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, NE Tenn.-SW Va. – The regional existing single-family housing market is flattening out, according to November’s TCI Group’s Appalachian Highland H… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. –  The local labor market shed 300 seasonally adjusted jobs last month. It was the first time this year the monthly job creation growth rate declin… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – October was a month for small gains in the local housing market everywhere except the luxury market where pending sales doubled. New listings in… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – State sales tax collections are up from last year, but the growth rate has plunged from 15% in February to 0.2% in May. So far this year, non-adjusted… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn.– Housing flip sales were up significantly in Hawkins and Sullivan counties during the first three months of this year. Flips were flat in Washington Co… Read More

By DON FENLEY GRAY – The 2023 Housing Market Restructuring continued in April with fewer local home sales and prices inching higher.     “The market is performing… Read More

By DON FENLEY Flipped homes are an important part of the local housing market. They account for about 10% of existing home sales and half of them are always in the affordable and work-force… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – Investors flipped a record number of homes last year in this inventory-starved market. According to ATTOM, a property data provider, there were 749 fl… Read More

By DON FENLEY GRAY, TN – While the Northeast Tennessee region has seen a slight improvement in active housing inventory, the months of inventory metric is stubbornly stuck in the 1.6 t… Read More

BY DON FENLEY GRAY, Tenn. – The Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) has served up a benchmarking look back at how the local counties’ real estate industry’s… Read More

By DON FENLEY GRAY, Tenn. – Rapid mortgage rate increases are nudging Tri-Cities’ short-term home prices lower, according to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETA… Read More

By DON FENLEY TRI-CITIES, Tenn. – Home affordability is just out of reach or out of reach in Sullivan and Washington counties, according to ATTOM Data solution’s third quart… Read More

By DON FENLEY GRAY, Tenn. – Inventory will be the key metric for market stabilization in the coming months, according to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR). So far… Read More

Washington and Sullivan are among the U.S. counties least vulnerable to housing market declines, according to a Special Housing Risk report from Attom Data Solutions. Based on home affordabi… Read More

Local home sales may be slowing, but not prices. They hit new highs last month. The typical home sales price was up $40,100 from May last year, according to the Northeast Tennessee Associati… Read More

Relocation buyers have and will continue to fundamentally change the local housing market landscape for the foreseeable future. So far, the most noticeable effect has been a concentration of… Read More

The Tri-Cities used to have limited recognition as a place for affordable housing in a low cost-of-living area that was a good place to invest in a home and live. That’s not the case a… Read More

A flurry of labor market reports this month will provide a little better understanding of just where the Tri-Cities’ economic recovery stands. So far, a red-hot housing market and cons… Read More

The Tri-Cities area housing market lurched into 2022 with a record-low inventory and sales that looked a lot like they did in the final months of 2021. During the 12 months ending on Jan. 10… Read More

Tri-Cities commercial real estate had one of its best-ever months in August. There were 64 commercial leases and sales, up 82.9 percent from last year. It’s also notewor… Read More

Cash may be king in the home buying market, but in the mortgage world refinancing is like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps on going and going. Refinances accounted for 58.9% of all the loa… Read More

There’s concern among some real estate professionals that multiple offers and bidding buyers are tempting sellers to overprice their properties. One predictable result is deals that wo… Read More

“The home-loan industry got even busier in the third quarter of 2020, with the housing market still operating as if the recession brought on by the pandemic didn’t exist. Buyers… Read More

The percentage of Tri-Cities cash sales were down during the first three months of this year and the sales of FHA sales were up. At the same time institutional investors have all but abandon… Read More

You can file this one under trend potential. Much of the commercial real estate market is in dark times – especially retail and restaurants – and that’s pushing struggling… Read More

The Tri-Cities spring buying and selling season was off to a pretty good start in mid-April, but the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are beginning to show up.  There were 900 more r… Read More

At year’s end, the Tri-Cities had the best year-over-year growth rate of new high-end home building permits among the neighboring regions of Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Asheville. Perm… Read More

Tri-Cities area foreclosure filings posted a 21.5% increase in January when compared to January last year, according to Attom Data Solutions’ Foreclosure Report. There was a total of 1… Read More

While the share of all-cash home sales was down last year in the Tri-Cities it doesn’t mean cash still isn’t a big player. Better than one of every three existing home sales in b… Read More

Local Commercial Realtors are more optimistic about the Tri-Cities market than some of the data supports. But some of that enthusiasm is based on momentum that won’t show up until Q4 r… Read More

Another information meeting on Opportunity Zones is scheduled at Meadowview Resort and Convention Center on Dec. 11. According to the Mastered in Tennessee website, there are currently four… Read More

Foreclosure activity in the six Northeast Tennessee counties included in a national analysis was down 30.7% from last year – almost double the decline nation-wide. There were 140 local… Read More

The Tri-Cities labor market added 2,500 nonfarm jobs in August. It was the beginning of a seasonal labor market rebound and the weakest August-July job performance it nine years. August is t… Read More

Some civic and government types looked a lot like deer caught in the headlights during ETSU’s session on regionalism earlier this month. Hearing the CEO of the region’s largest i… Read More

July was another lackluster month for Tri-Cities retail sales tax collection. Kingsport-Bristol collections have lagged the four-county area’s 2018 market share benchmark every month t… Read More

Permits for high-end homes were up by four during the first half of this year, and for the first time in three years, Sullivan County led other Tri-Cities counties. The Market Edge classes h… Read More

Sometimes real estate market cycles produce weird results. The first half of 2019 is a local example. Tri-Cities new home permits were only 2% better than the first half of last year. Normal… Read More

The Tri-Cities jobs market is plowing its way through seasonal slowdowns with a steady momentum toward making 2019 the year it officially recovers from the Great Recession. June, July, and A… Read More

About this time next month, we’ll get our first looks at the Census Bureau’s 2018 data. Unfolding of the 2018 1-year American Community Survey Reports and subsequent reports will… Read More

The number of Sullivan and Washington investor-owned single-family and townhome properties has declined for the third straight year, and the vacancy rate has increased. That gauge of the loc… Read More

Tri-Cities area properties with foreclosure filings dropped to a three-year low during the first half of 2019. Attom Data Solution’s Midyear U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows 370 pr… Read More

The folks at Attom Data Solutions have added a new twist to “how what you home is near affects its value.” Think specialty food stores.  And in a rapidly aging population li… Read More

The Johnson City metro area had the third-best year-over-year sales tax collections in Tennessee in June while Kingsport-Bristol’s month-over-month collections were the best in the sta… Read More

During the first three months of this year, 115 homes were flipped the four local counties analyzed in Attom Data Solutions Q1 Home Flipping Report. The number of flips as a percent of total… Read More

The Tri-Cities new home construction sector slogged through some of the wettest weather on record during the fourth quarter of 2018, a softwood shortage during a trade spat with Canada, incr… Read More

House flippers are some of the unsung heroes of the local housing industry. Last year they accounted for just under 10% of the region’s home sales. And most of those homes were sold be… Read More

The Tri-Cities new residential permits report was slammed by a perfect storm of bad consequences during Q3 and the first nine months of this year. Labor and material costs were up, new codes… Read More

Last year was the best economy the Tri-Cities has seen in five years. It was the first year since 2012 when the seven-county area posted real economic growth from the previous year. With tha… Read More

Despite some soft spots in the overall economy, sales tax collections in the Kingsport-Bristol Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) continue outperforming other Northeast Tennessee markets. K… Read More

The Tri-Cities labor market is slogging through the seasonal slump by slowing adding nonfarm jobs. So far this year, employers are averaging 40 new jobs a month. Last year they grew at an av… Read More

Look for a continuation of brisk existing home sales in Hawkins, Sullivan and Washington counties for the next 90 days. Those three local counties have a pre-mover index that’s higher… Read More

The number of renters in Washington and Sullivan counties increased by almost 5,000 in the six years between 2010 and 2016. And, the lion’s share of that increase came in Washington Co… Read More

Reunifying the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol region to one Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) status picked up momentum last month. The reasoning for the change is based on the r… Read More

  Mark 2017 as the year Kingsport got its mojo back. After two straight years of population declines, the Model City led the area in population gains. It also had the hottest existing h… Read More

Kingsport-Bristol Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) sales tax collections were up an eye-popping 15.6% over February last year and 17.6% better than January following a disappointing begin… Read More

Lenders eased up on repossessions in February but there was a spike in new notices of trustee sales. There were 41 new notice of trustee sales in the local NE Tennessee counties. That’… Read More

Knoxville was the only Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in Northeast Tennessee with a positive August year-over-year gain in retail sales tax collections. Kingsport-Bristol and the Johnso… Read More

The Tri-Cities economy added nonfarm jobs at the average rate of 200 a month in August. Compared to August last year there were 1,700 more jobs in the seven-county, two Metropolitian Statist… Read More

Kingsport-Bristol joined Memphis as the only metro areas in Tennessee with year-over-year sales tax collection declines in July. Kingsport-Bristol posted the biggest decrease in the state an… Read More

Friday’s job report showed hiring has slowed in the service sector, which has fueled much of the labor market growth this year. Seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs are growing at almost t… Read More

So far this year, Tri-Cities new home construction is slogging along at about the same pace as last year and the year before. That’s not especially good news for a region where a tight… Read More

Tri-Cities employers continued adding nonfarm jobs at an average rate of 200 a month in July. At the same time employment was 1.7% higher than July last year and the unemployment rate was un… Read More

There are more than 3,000 Tri-Cities area homeowners – that includes investors –  feeling richer than they did this time last year. Their economic lot in life is rosier beca… Read More

The median commute time in the Tri-Cities is just under 30 minutes. But that’s only the Census Bureau’s numbers crunch and doesn’t account for the wreck that has a lane clo… Read More

Retail sales tax collections in both the Tri-Cities two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) continue their rebound from a steep March funk that dropped collections to a two-year low. Season… Read More

June’s Tri-Cities’ jobs report is a study in contrast. Preliminary, non-adjusted numbers and the trend looks very good in the three-county Johnson City Metropolitan Statistical A… Read More

Cash is still king in the Tri-Cities housing market. They were down in four NE Tenn. counties when compared to last year, but every county in the region had a higher Q2 all-cash share t… Read More

News that Social Security recipients would get a 2.2% cost of living increase didn’t get much public attention in mid-July when the story broke. Maybe it’s because the extra $3.4… Read More

Kingsport-Bristol retail sales tax collections bounced back from two months of negative performance for a solid 2.7% year-over-year gain in May. At the same time, Johnson City Metropolitan S… Read More

May’s labor market reports served up a lot to get your mind wrapped around. Johnson City unemployment rate dropped to 2.9%, and the rest of the area saw rates below 4%. It was the seco… Read More

Kingsport-Bristol Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), private sector wages, declined again in May while wage growth in the Johnson City MSA continued a higher rate than the national average… Read More

Attom Data Solution’s first-ever Pre-Mover Housing Index was an eye-opener for local real estate economy watchers. Washington County had the highest index in Tennessee; the highest pre… Read More

April’s private-sector wages saw a continuation of a Tri-cities trend that has become all too common. Workers in the Johnson City Metropolitan Statistical Area saw an increase while th… Read More

The job sector that some Tri-Cities residents love to hate is going through an unprecedented change and localization on a new study helps put a better face on it. It’s not a new story… Read More

The April data update from the National Association of Counties is the good, the bad and the ugly about bridges. Here in Northeast Tennessee, there are 1,473 bridges that’s the good. I… Read More

It’s common knowledge that the Great Recession hollowed out much of the Tri-Cities’ middle class – that good paying jobs like those in manufacturing were replaced with low… Read More