It’s that time of the week again - Foreclosure Watch time. Looks like you guys have been out snapping these babies up, as pendings and closings are up, and average days on market is way down.

So without further ado, here are the numbers and clicky links you came here for -

Knox County Foreclosure Property Statistics as of 4/30/08 *

Current On-Market Listings - 154
Average Asking Price: $132,605
Median Asking Price: $88,950
Most Expensive New Listing: 4 BR, 3 BA, approx 3400 sq ft in Summer Rose in Fountain City
Least Expensive New Listing: 1 BR, 1 BA, approx 700 sq ft in East Knox
New Honorable Mention: 4 BR, 3 1/2 BA, approx 3000 sq ft in Powell

Current Pending Sales -106
Average Asking Price - $94,927
Median Asking Price - $79,900

Closed Sales April 16, 2008-April 22, 2008 - 9
Average Asking Price - $143,611
Average Sales Price - $142,933
Median Sales Price - $82,000
Average Days on Market - 25

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 4/30/08 for Knox County single family residential properties only, and does not include condos or PUDS.

If you have any questions about any of these properties, feel free to drop me a line.

As always, I’d love to hear your observations on this week’s numbers. Any ideas about I could improve Foreclosure Watch are equally welcome. You can leave both in the comments below.

Don’t miss a single Foreclosure Watch update - subscribe to All Around K-Town today!

You really should stop by Instaknox if you haven’t already. It’s kind of like Knoxville’s very own Twitter, and sometimes you can come across cool stuff like local artist’s Steve Lareau’s website, KnoxvilleFirstFriday.com. From Steve’s message on Instaknox:

First Friday info around here has been impossible to find. Web sites for the different galleries sometimes aren’t updated, even the web site for First Friday by the market square district has zero information. Being an artist, it’s frustrating not to be able to find out who even participates, aside from a few places on Market Square…

…Eventually, [the website will] have a place for local artists to be listed, as well as the different galleries that participate.

The website is still in its infancy, but it looks like it could turn into a very valuable tool for those of you who actually get Friday nights off to do fun stuff.

While the weekly poll is showing that most of you think I should go work at Starbucks to offset my rising gas costs, I’m thinking out of work East Tennessee builders might have already filled all the vacant positions. Via Property Scope:

The Knoxville research firm [The Market Edge] recently issued its 1Q numbers for residential building permits, and the comparison with the first quarter of 2007 is grim:

Knox County — down 58 percent
Loudon County — down 21 percent
Anderson County — down 63 percent
Blount County — down 48 percent
Sevier County — down 40 percent.

Don’t eat all the biscotti before I get there, boys.

We’re still in West Knoxville this week looking at a neighborhood that I look at a lot, seeing as how it’s located right across Kingston Pike from my office: West Hills.

West Hills*

Current On-Market Listings - 13
Average Asking Price: $226,015
Median Asking Price: $210,000
Most Expensive: $459,900 (5 BR, 3 1/2 BA, approx 6500 sq ft)
Least Expensive: $149,900 (3 BR, 1 1/2 BA, approx 1300 sq ft)

Current Pending Sales -6
Average Asking Price: $181,600
Median Asking Price: $171,200

Closed Sales - Q1 2007 - 9
Average Sales Price - $188,778
Median Sales Price - $189,000
Average Days on Market - 77

Closed Sales - Q1 2008 - 5
Average Sales Price - $187,060
Median Sales Price - $199,900
Average Days on Market - 75

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 4/28/08 for West Hills proper and does not include adjacent subdivisions, condos or PUDS.

If you want any more information about any of these properties, just give me a shout.

Thanks to Casey Peters for the inspiration for this week’s NOTW! Want to aspire to inspire me for next week’s neighborhood? Do so in the comments.

In it’s favorite place, over there at the top left.

And while the price of gas is getting ridiculously expensive, don’t forget that subscribing to All Around K-Town is still absolutely free!

Since the last (and first) installment of Cool Homes You Can’t Afford was almost as big of a hit with you guys as Foreclosure Watch, and since I already spent most of the day looking at homes that I can’t afford anyway, I thought I would spend my first night off in 27 years looking at more ridiculously expensive but undeniably awesome Knoxville mega-homes.

Let’s start with this 5 BR, 6 1/2 BA, approx 9400 sq ft home in Halls with stacked Tennessee stone accents, 4 car garage and more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at. List price $1,600,00. Halls has it!!

Then there’s this 6600 sq ft completely remodeled home in Old Westmoreland in West Knox. The home has 6 BR, 5 full bath and 2 half baths and features just about brand new everything, including a home theater with seating for 7. All this and for only $1,749,000!

Or how about this home on Cherokee Blvd in Sequoyah Hills: 4 BR, 3 1/2 BA, approx 6000 sq ft, and a rawking master bath that includes a sauna AND steam room. Best of all it comes completely furnished so you don’t have to max out your Discover card at Rooms To Go. List price $2,995,000.

And lastly there’s this 34+ acre horse farm in Powell, featuring mountain views, a 2 story stacked stone fireplace and two horse barns. It’s a Powell country Paradise! List price $2,600,00.

Now, I know what you’re thinking - these places are awesome, but how would I ever keep them clean? Good help is so hard to find these days! Well, how about this - buy any of them from me and I’ll personally come and clean them for you for one month. For reals. Heh.

Over on No Silence Here, Michael Silence links to a list of the top 20 highest property tax rates in Tennessee. Knox county is 4th. Ouch.

All Around K-Town got a little bit of KNS love yesterday. Check it out here.

Welcome back, Foreclosure watchers. In this week’s edition, the on-market foreclosure listings are at roughly the same level as last week, while pendings are up and closings are down.

Here’s the break down -

Knox County Foreclosure Property Statistics as of 4/23/08 *

Current On-Market Listings - 161
Average Asking Price: $135,060
Median Asking Price: $88,000
Most Expensive New Listing: 7 BR, 5 BA, approx 7300 sq ft home in Sequoyah Hills
Least Expensive New Listing: 3 BR, 1 BA, approx 1100 sq ft in Bon View in East Knox
Honorable Mention: 4 BR, 2 BA, approx 1400 sq ft in Red Bud Hills in South Knox

Current Pending Sales -100
Average Asking Price - $96,958
Median Asking Price - $79,900

Closed Sales April 16, 2008-April 22, 2008 - 4
Average Asking Price - $102,950
Average Sales Price - $103,000
Median Sales Price - $106,450
Average Days on Market - 77

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 4/23/08 for Knox County single family residential properties only, and does not include condos or PUDS.

Any thoughts on this week’s edition? I’d love to hear them below.

Don’t miss a single Foreclosure Watch update - subscribe to All Around K-Town today!

It’s been a long week and it’s only Tuesday. So, let me unwind after a hard day in the housing mines by telling you a little story…

I recently listed a very nice home in a very nice neighborhood. The owners were very nice people. Everything, in fact, was awfully nice and swell until my phone rang early one Friday morning:

Caller: Hi, is this Suzy Trotta?

Me: Yes, how can I help you? [I have very good phone manners]

Caller: I’m calling about the foreclosure property you have for sale.

Me: Um, I don’t have any foreclosure properties for sale.

Caller: Have you looked in today’s News Sentinel? Cuz you do now.

Sure enough, an examination of the KNS foreclosure notices showed that my nice little listing was due to be auctioned off on the courthouse steps in two weeks. I called the number given in the notice, thinking this must surely be some bizarre mix-up. I mean, my sellers were such nice people.

The helpful woman at the law firm told me that yes, indeed, my listing was going to auction and the reason was that the current owners had not paid their mortgage in 7 months.

7 months.

I was completely dumbfounded. My nice little sellers? Those sweet folks whose dining room table I had sat at just a few weeks before? What the fudge?

I decided to call my clients to figure out what was going on.

Me: Hi, Mrs. Seller. Great news. We had two showings this week. And by the way, did you know your home is possibly going into foreclosure?

I waited.

One Mississippi…

Two Mississippi…

Three Mississippi…

Mrs. Seller: Why, yes, we did.

So there it was. They knew. They knew! My next immediate thought was, “Why in the world didn’t they tell me?”

I know, I know, the simple answer was because they were embarrassed. But is suffering embarrassment worse than going into foreclosure?

Luckily we wound up being able to do a short sale and everything turned out pretty ok. Instead of going into foreclosure, those folks will now have to pay taxes on the amount of money the bank lost on the short sale and suffer the damage of the missed mortgage payments on their credit report. Still, much better than foreclosure, trust me.

My role in this situation was not to judge. I never really found out what prevented them from paying their mortgage, but that wasn’t my business anyway. The fact was that my clients were still really nice people. They were just really nice people who go in over their head financially. Scheisse passiert as the Germans say.

No, my job was to sell that home before auction and I somehow managed to pull it off. Yes, that’s the sound of me tooting my own horn. Toot! Toot!

But I’m not just telling you this story to show off my superior home selling skills. There is a actually a moral in this story that I think is very important:

If you are in trouble with your home financing and have missed payments or know that foreclosure is looming in your future, do not keep this information to yourself when listing your home. I know you want to try to sell it and pay the bank off and hope the whole mess just goes away without any of your friends and neighbors ever finding out. And I get that. I really do.

But the fact of the matter is that while real estate agents can certainly help you in this situation, we can only help you if you ask us to. If we know up front what your situation is, we can start working the phone immediately. Calling your loss mitigation coordinator. Calling investors. Calling other agents who know other investors. We can try to help you work with the bank to try and arrange a short sale. And a short sale, while not being the answer to your prayers, will still be much, much better than foreclosure.

So swallow your pride and ask for our help. Losing a little pride is a much better option than losing your home to foreclosure.