The weekly poll is up there in its usual spot and is ready for your voting pleasure.  Go on and click it - you know you wanna.

This week’s topic is where you found your last or current real estate agent.  Did a friend or relative refer you to someone? Did you go with the guy or gal with the biggest, flashiest ad in the home magazines? Or maybe you just happened upon someone at an open house and it was agent/client relationship at first sight? Cast your vote and let me know.

And while there may be lots of ways to find a good real estate agent, there’s only one sure-fire way to find the best and most up-to-date information on the Knoxville real estate market - subscribe to All Around KTown in a feed reader or by email today!

photo credit: thp365

I’ve been working with a lot of buyers lately, and - in addition to causing me to neglect this here blog - it’s made me think a lot about price expectations. More often than not, buyers tend to have somewhat unrealistic expectations of how much home they can get for a certain amount of money. This is especially true with people coming in from out of town who have heard stories of being able to get a brand new, 2000+ sq ft home in West Knoxville - possibly on the lake! - for just $150,000.  Um, yeah. Not.  It usually takes driving around for a few days and looking at some real dogs to convince them that this is not, in fact, the case.

So, in order to try to save myself some gas and also because I love digging in the MLS at the end of a long, hard week, I’ve decided to do a semi-regular series exploring what kinds of homes you can get in different areas of town for various price ranges. My plan is to start low - way low - and work my way up to the Cool Homes You Can’t Afford range. Sound like fun? Then let’s begin!

Our first price range is $0 - $50,000.Yes, there are single family residences listed in Knox County for less than $50,000 - 97 as of today, in fact. But as you might expect in this price range, a lot of them are foreclosures, most of them are small, some of them are in need of repairs, and almost none of them are in West Knoxville.

Here are some examples of  what you can get in this price range in North, South, East, and West Knox County:

North

3 BR, 1 BA, 900+ sq ft foreclosure in Fountain City ($34,900)

3 BR, 1 BA, 1000+ sq ft foreclosure on Cecil Ave. ($39,900)

1 BR, 1 BA, 600+ sq ft remodeled cottage on Gillespie ($42,900)

2 BR, 1 BA, 700+ sq ft foreclosure on Cecil Ave. ($49,500)

South

2 BR, 1 BA, 700+ sq ft fixer upper off of Cherokee Trail ($25,000)

2 BR, 1 BA, 800+ sq ft foreclosure off Sevier Ave. ($37,525)

3 BR, 1 BA, 1000+ sq ft fixer upper on Young Ave. ($40,000)

3 BR, 1 BA, 800+ sq ft off of Young Ave. ($50,000)

East

2 BR, 1 BA, 1300+ sq ft foreclosure in Morningside ($19,900)

3 BR, 1 BA, 1100+ sq ft off of Rutledge Pike ($34,900)

2 BR, 1 BA, 700+ sq ft in Sunset Park ($41,500)

2 BR, 1 BA, 800+ sq ft on Old Rutledge Pike ($49,980)

West

3 BR, 1 BA, 800+ sq ft fixer upper in Karns ($44,500)

That’s all for this price range. I’ll be looking at the next price range soon - just after I go back out and show about another 100 houses. Stay tuned!

It’s that magical time of the week again, Foreclosure Watch time. This week pending listings are slightly up, while on-market listings are slightly down and closed sales are all the way down in the single digits.

In new listing news, there were only 11 new foreclosure listings this week and 3 of them came from zip code 37917. By my liberal arts major math, that’s almost 30%. Ouch.

Now for the breakdown:

Knox County Foreclosure Property Statistics as of 8/27/08 *

Current On-Market Listings - 142
Average Asking Price: $142,559
Median Asking Price: $92,500
Most Expensive New Listing: $669,000 (4 BR, 4 1/2 BA, 4000+ sq ft in Fox Creek in West Knox)
Least Expensive New Listing: $34,000 (2 BR, 1 BA, 1200+ sq ft in East Knox)

Notable New Listings:
North: $135,900 (3 BR, 2 BA, 3400 sq ft on Buffat Mill)
South: $89,500 (4 BR, 1 1/2 BA, 1400+ sq ft in Lake Forest)
East: The “least expenisive” new listing was the only new East Knox listing!
West: $269,900 (5 BR, 3 1/2 BA, 3600+ sq ft in West Hampton)
Current Pending Sales -115
Average Asking Price - $93,485
Median Asking Price - $74,900

Closed Sales August 20, 2008-August 26, 2008 - 4
Average Asking Price - $93,825
Average Sales Price - $93,925
Median Sales Price - $90,500
Average Days on Market -57

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 8/27/08 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. No unwelcome spam will make it way to your email inbox as a result.

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!

In response to a recent set of KNS articles about eclectic neighborhoods in both Nashville and Chattanooga, Josh Flory over at the Property Scope is wondering which Knoxville neighborhoods, if any, qualify as funky or eclectic:

Is the Fourth & Gill/Downtown North area the best candidate? Is our city lagging when it comes to fostering eclectic and funky sections of town? Or is this kind of organic development over-rated in the first place?

All excellent questions. Any thoughts?

Since I’m out of town today, there will be no new Neighborhood of the Week post today. But never fear - you can head over to Knoxify and check out my brand new Neighborhood Guide for Holston Hills. It’s chock full of neighborhood info and sales stats and should hopefully satisfy your Knoxville neighborhood curiousity until next week, when NOTW will return. See you then!

The weekly poll is up and wanting to know why you haven’t stopped by to see it in a while. Seriously, even a short visit would really mean a lot to it.

This week’s topic is where you like to search for homes. Even though our local MLS site is probably the most reliable and up to date source of area home listings, I’ve noticed that some people still can’t get enough of looking through the home magazines or combing through Craigslist. So I’m curious: what’s your home searching pleasure? Cast your vote and let me know. And if I missed a great search resource, please let me know about it in the comments.

Tired of searching for information on the Knoxville real estate market? Well stop your searching and let the information come to you  - subscribe to AAKT in a feed reader or by email today!

photo credit: LexnGer

photo credit: hensonkid

Knoxify wants to know how you would describe Knoxville. I already answered, so now it’s your turn.

Greetings and salutations, Foreclosure Watchers. This week, active and pending listings are slightly down, sales are way up and the average and median sales price fell back down to where it was before making its huge spike a few weeks ago.

There were 19 new listings this week and 37924 made its way onto the chart for the very first time. I also noticed that 5 zips now have the dubious distinction of having double digit new listings since I started keeping track in mid July - 37912, 37914, 37917, 37918, and 37921.

Now for the breakdown:

Knox County Foreclosure Property Statistics as of 8/20/08 *

Current On-Market Listings - 151
Average Asking Price: $135,188
Median Asking Price: $90,000
Most Expensive New Listing: $189,900 (6 BR, 2 1/2 BA, 2500+ sq ft in Cambridge in W Knox)
Least Expensive New Listing: $18,000 (2 BR, 1 BA, 800+ sq ft in need of extensive repairs in Powell)

Notable New Listings:
North: $90,000 (2 BR, 2 BA, 1000+ sq ft in North Hills)
South: $93,900 (3 BR, 2 BA, 1100+ sq ft off of Maryville Pike)
East: $27,500 (3 BR, 1 BA, 1000+ off of Asheville Hwy)
West: $130,000 (3 BR, 2 BA, 1200+ sq ft in Karns)

Current Pending Sales -107
Average Asking Price - $94,005
Median Asking Price - $74,900

Closed Sales August 12, 2008-August 19, 2008 - 15
Average Asking Price - $87,993
Average Sales Price - $76,640
Median Sales Price - $72,000
Average Days on Market -46

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 8/20/08 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. Not to worry, I hate spam as much as you do.

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!

It’s the middle of the month again and that means it’s Home Sales Report time. For those of you new to this shindig, every month I look at the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors Sales Report statistics and tell you what sold and for how much as compared to the same month the previous year.

So here’s the July Home Sales Report breakdown the only way I know how to do it — All Around K-Town style.

Let’s look at the good news first:

Average sales price for 2 or less BR homes is (way) up.
July ‘07 - $111,500
July ‘08 - $146,100

Average sales price for 4+ BR homes is up.
July ‘07 - $298,100
July ‘08 - $307,700

Median sales price for 4+ BR homes is (slightly) up.
July ‘07 - $261,700
July ‘08 - $262,500

This week Neighborhood of the Week goes back to the north side of town to a historic Fountain City community called Harrill Hills.

Located in the heart of Fountain City just off of Jacksboro Pike, Harrill Hills was founded by established as the result of a partnership between a builder and a Fountain City’s biggest grocer in the 1920, A. Hale Franklin. According to the Fountain City News website:

As his business grew, Hale envisioned a new, larger home for his family and acquired property on Terrace View Drive in present day Harrill Hills. According to family tradition, the builder and Fountain City’s leading grocer made an arrangement that was not so unusual for its time.

Hale agreed to barter a supply of groceries in exchange for part of the construction cost and the building materials. The arrangement enabled him to finance deluxe features found in very few homes at the time such as the all brick exterior, steel columns and I-beams in the basement to support the two floors above, a drive-through brick garage and concrete tile roof…

…In late 1927, several years after the Franklin house was built, a large-scale development was planned for Harrill Hills. Called the “First and Second Units” and covering a large area from Forest Lane to the north and Gaineswood Road on the south, bounded on the east by Brier Cliff Road and on the west by Jacksboro Pike, the development contained almost 300 building sites.

Today Harrill Hills is a very laid-back, picturesque neighborhood with lots of mature trees and greenery. Although several homes there were built in the 20s and 30s, building continued well into the 60s, giving Harrill Hills an interesting mix of architectural styles which includes everything from stone cottages to mid-century ranchers.

AAKT’s resident photographer, Robert Stockdale, captured the feel of the community with these great shots-

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

So if you’re looking for a picturesque, historic community that feels like it’s situated far off the beaten path, but is also very convenient to I-640, downtown, and UT, take a closer look at Harrill Hills.

Here’s Harrill Hills by the numbers -

Harrill Hills*

Current On-Market Listings - 13
Average Asking Price: $169,846
Median Asking Price: $169,900
Most Expensive: $249,900 (4 BR, 4 BA, approx. 2500 sq ft built in 1947)
Least Expensive: $117,900 (3 BR, 1 BA, 1400+ sq ft built in 1955)
Middle of the Road: $169,900 (3 BR, 2 BA, 1900+ sq ft built in 1951)

Current Pending Sales -
Average Asking Price: $165,000
Median Asking Price:NA

Closed Sales - Jan 2008 - June 30 2008- 6
Average Asking Price - $96,583
Average Sales Price - $99,050
Median Sales Price - $102,400
Average Days on Market - 99

Closed Sales - Jan 2007 - June 30 2007- 5
Asking Price - $178,936
Average Sales Price - $172,996
Median Sales Price - $147,500
Days on Market - 88

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 8/18/08 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 Harrill Hills Listings” or “New Harrill Hill Listings” in the subject line and I’ll take care of the rest. Ix-nay on the am-spay.

Know of nice little corner of K-Town that would make a great Neighborhood of the Week? Don’t keep it to yourself - let me know about it and you might just see it featured here one day soon.