OK, so by now you know there’s this new “Housing Rescue Bill” and that it just got signed into law. It has a lot of provisions that have raised a lot of questions and caused a lot of mixed opinions.

Some people think it’s good,

some people think it’s bad,

some people think it’s good and bad,

some people think it’s only a temporary fix,

and one person thinks it’s a lot like an episode of “Mad Men.”

What do you think?

It hardly seems like it can be Foreclosure Watch time again, but time does have a tendency to fly when you’re working in this crazy real estate market. This week on Foreclosure Watch, while actives, pendings and closings stay somewhat steady, I did notice two strange blips in the data.

1. The average sales price for closed foreclosures more than doubled.
This is partially due to one very big six figure sale, but even if you remove the big one from the equation, the average sales price would still be in the $120s - way higher than last week’s average of around $88,000. So what gives? Is it just a fluke or are more buyers starting to look for bargains in the upper bracket of the foreclosure market? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

2. There were only about 1/2 has many new foreclosure listings this week as there were the previous two weeks.
Again, no idea if this is a fluke or a trend, but you can bet I’ll be keeping an eye on it in coming weeks.

Now for the breakdown:

Knox County Foreclosure Property Statistics as of 7/30/08 *

Current On-Market Listings - 150 ?
Average Asking Price: $136,451 ?
Median Asking Price: $88,900 ?
Most Expensive New Listing: $499,900 (7 BR, 4 1/2 BA, 4900+ sq ft in Andover Place in Farragut)
Least Expensive New Listing: $16,150 (1 BR, 1 BA, 700+ sq ft in East Knoxville)

Notable New Listings:
North: $180,000 (4 BR, 2 1/2 BA, 2400+ sq ft in Corryton)
South: $90,900 (3 BR, 2 BA, 1100+ sq ft off of Sevierville Pike)
East: $39,900 (3 BR, 1 1/2 BA 1300+ sq ft off of Biddle St.)
West: $120,000 (4 BR, 3 BA, approx 2600 sq ft in Lakeshire)

Current Pending Sales -105 ?
Average Asking Price - $87,444?
Median Asking Price - $74,900?

Closed Sales July 23, 2008-July 29, 2008 - 12 ?
Average Asking Price - $174,442?(way, way up)
Average Sales Price - $164,383?
Median Sales Price - $135,600 ?
Average Days on Market - 69 ?

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 7/30/08 for Knox County single family residential properties only, and does not include condos or PUDS.

As always, if you need more information on any of these properties, just drop me a line.

If you’d like to receive new foreclosure listings automatically, send me an email with “Foreclosure List” in the subject line, and I’ll do the rest. Spam is for losers.

Why take the chance of ever missing out on Foreclosure Watch? Make sure you get all your foreclosure goodness every week by subscribing to All Around K-Town today, either by RSS or email!

Knoxify and I have posted a new community to our Knoxville Neighborhood Guide. This week we focus on a lovely historic neighborhood that also happens to be very walkable: North Hills. Head over to Knoxify and check it out!

Have a comment or suggestion for the Knoxville Neighborhood Guide? You know I’d love to hear all about it.

“Our main problem is inventory, and as it starts to get back more in balance with the demand then there’ll be more confidence in pricing and stability will come back. We’re hoping that’s a positive; that the light’s at the end of the tunnel and we’re going to get our inventory back in line and it will be better in ‘09 than it was in ‘08. It’s better now than it was a year ago.”

- Jim Wallace, co-owner of (my brokerage) Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace, REALTORS on the state of the Knoxville real estate market in an article over on KNS.

This week Neighborhood of the Week heads back out West to little lakefront neighborhood called Riversound.

Located just off of Northshore Drive a little over 2 miles west of the Pellissippi, Riversound bills itself as “an exclusive lakefront development with the comfort and atmosphere of family living.”

The community sits on 96 acres on the north shore of Fort Loundon Lake and not only are several homes there actually on the water, many homes in Riversound have incredible lake and mountain views. There’s also a community boat dock with some private dock slips available for homeowners. There are, however, not enough for all homeowners, and when a slip goes up for sale, I hear it goes pretty quickly

Other neighborhood amenities include a 5000 sq ft neighborhood clubhouse, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, and newly resurfaced tennis courts.

Riversound is also located just up the road from quite a few county parks, including “The Cove”, or Concord Park, Admiral Farragut Park and Carl Cowan Park.

So if you’re looking for an upscale lakefront community that’s convenient to I-640 and Turkey Creek, has it’s own neighborhood pool and tennis courts and is also close to some really nice public parks, Riversound might be a good place to call home.

Note: Even though the condo community “The Breakers” is located within Riversound, I’m only going to focus on the single family homes in this NOTW.

Here’s Riversound by the numbers -

Riversound*

Current On-Market Listings - 7
Average Asking Price: $744,371
Median Asking Price: $764,900
Most Expensive: $896,000 (5 BR, 5 BA, approx 5000 sq ft on about an acre)
Least Expensive: $619,900 (4 BR, 4 1/2 BA 4200+ sq ft )
Middle of the Road: $764,900 (4 BR, 4 1/2 BA, 5700+ sq ft )

Current Pending Sales - 0
Average Asking Price: NA
Median Asking Price: NA

Closed Sales - Jan 2008 - June 30 2008- 3
Average Asking Price - $628,133
Average Sales Price - $611,667
Median Sales Price - $600,000
Average Days on Market - 38

Closed Sales - Jan 2007 - June 30 2007- 1
Asking Price - $1,175,000
Sales Price - $1,115,000
Days on Market - 38

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 7/28/08 does not include condos, PUDS, adjacent neighborhoods or multi-family units.

As always, if you want any more information about any of these properties, or if you’d like to check one of them out in person, just give me a shout.

If you would like to receive a full list of properties for sale in this neighborhood, or if you would like to be notified of new listings, send me an email with either “Current Riversound Listings” or “New Riversound Listings” in the subject line and I’ll take care of the rest. No spam - scout’s honor.

Live in a great neighborhood you think is worthy of some attention? Let me know about it and you might just see it featured here in the coming weeks.

This week’s poll is up. You know the drill.

This week’s topic is about what you most want to have in your next home. More space? Less space? A really nice outdoor living area? Or maybe just a whole lot less yard work? Cast your vote and let me know.

And while you may not have all the square footage you want yet, you can still get all the latest information on the Knoxville real estate market any time you need it. Just subscribe to All Around KTown in a feed reader or by email today!

It’s been a really long week. Such a long week, in fact, that I have lost the ability to turn my head to the right. Not good. So instead of bringing you hard hitting real estate news or stats, I’m instead going to show you this -

And this -

(Yes, that is a person in that bed.)

And this-

So what do all of these photos have in common? No, they’re not of my house. They’re all actual, if unfortuate, listing photos that have been lovingly gathered together for your enjoyment over at It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It!, a great blog that one of my seller clients told me about this week. And these are just the tip of the iceberg - there are pages and pages of these beauties to keep you amused for quite some time.

This totally inexplicable one is my absolute favorite -

Maybe the idea is that instead of thinking that the kitchen was last updated in 1982, the potential buyer will instead think, “Run for your life! It’s a giant man-eating dog!!!!!!”

If you answer Knoxify’s Friday question about what you like about your neighborhood by midnight tonight, you will be entered to win some cool, free swag from Rootclip, the choose your own video adventure website.

So why are you still here? Head on over to Knoxify and answer that darn question, already! And while you’re there, check out our joint endeavor, Knoxify Neighborhoods.

The Knoxville market is doing pretty well when you compare it to national averages and even to other Tennessee cities. From an article by Josh Flory in yesterday’s KNS:

But while the local real estate market has been sluggish, there’s no doubt that East Tennessee has been spared from the worst of the pain. According to data from the National Association of Realtors, the median sale price of existing single-family homes in Knoxville fell by 2.7 percent in the first quarter, compared to a national drop of 7.7 percent. Knoxville also outperformed Volunteer State peers like Memphis, where prices were off by 18.5 percent, and Chattanooga, where prices were down by 3.4 percent.

It may not be great news, but I’ll still take it.

Word up to the Watchers. In this week’s edition of Foreclosure Watch, on-market listings and pending sales are slightly down, while closed sales have almost doubled. This week I’m also continuing my experiment of tracking new foreclosures by zip code. Here’s how they’re breaking down so far-

So far it still looks like the majority of the new listings are coming from north and east Knox. It will be interesting to see how each area develops over time.

Now for the breakdown:

Knox County Foreclosure Property Statistics as of 7/23/08 *

Current On-Market Listings - 155 ?
Average Asking Price: $132,516 ?
Median Asking Price: $89,900 ?
Most Expensive New Listing: $430,000 (3 BR, 3 1/2 BA, 3500+ sq ft in Fox Run)
Least Expensive New Listing: $24,900 (2 BR, 1 BA, 800+ sq ft in Lonsdale)

Notable New Listings:
North: $72,900 (3 BR, 1 1/2 BA, 1500+ sq ft in Fountain City Heights)
South: No new South foreclosures this week!
East: $35,500 (3 BR, 1 1/2 BA, 1100+ sq ft on Biddle St.)
West: $129,900 (4 BR, 2 BA on 1+ acre in Hardin Valley)

Current Pending Sales -105 ?
Average Asking Price - $95,977?
Median Asking Price - $79,900?

Closed Sales July 09, 2008-July 15, 2008 - 15 ?
Average Asking Price - $88,253?
Average Sales Price - $85,033?
Median Sales Price - $87,200 ?
Average Days on Market - 54 ?



*Data taken from KAARMLS on 7/23/08 for Knox County single family residential properties only, and does not include condos or PUDS.

As always, if you need more information on any of these properties, just drop me a line.

If you’d like to receive new foreclosure listings automatically, send me an email with “Foreclosure List” in the subject line, and I’ll do the rest. This is a spam free zone.

Why take the chance of ever missing out on Foreclosure Watch? Make sure you get all your foreclosure goodness every week by subscribing to All Around K-Town today, either by RSS or email!