Knoxville Neighborhood of the Week: Forest Heights

This week we’re heading to Bearden to revisit a little neighborhood with a lot of charm: Forest Heights. Forest Heights is actually comprised of four individual subdivisions: Forest Hills, Forest Heights, Highland Hills and Highland Hills Addition.

Located just off of Sutherland Avenue, Forest Heights Forest Heights is a very picturesque area and definitely worth checking out if you like older homes and the convenience of a close-in West location but aren’t crazy about Sequoyah Hills.

The Forest Heights Neighborhood Homeowner’s Association Website gives a brief overview of the history of the area:

The heavily wooded, hilly neighborhood now called Forest Heights has been a stable, attractive, and desirable residential area for over seventy years…

…Although the earliest homes of the area are from the 1920s and 1930s, most of the building is of the post World War II period. The residents of this neighborhood were and are a diverse group of people who have found the location, the natural beauty and the friendliness of their neighbors an enticement to move here, to raise their families, and often to remain and welcome their grown children back as new homeowners in the neighborhood.

As Knoxville grew, especially towards the west, and as the Interstate 40/75 was completed, Forest Heights had to adjust to the new conditions. The quiet neighborhood was bisected by still narrow Forest Heights Drive which had to bear almost constant heavy traffic to and from the Interstate overpass. To preserve the neighborhood the Forest Heights Neighborhood Association was formed in 1973. With dogged and determined courage the FHNHA successfully fought to keep the overpass down when it was demolished to allow the expansion of the Interstate in April 2001.

Homestyles in the neightborhood range from cottage to Tudor and most have some amount of stone accent.

The neighborhood itself is also very walkable. Once you get down the hill to Sutherland Avenue, it’s a short walk to the post office, the grocery store, Panera Bread and several other businesses located in the Mercedes Place shopping center.

So if you’re looking for something with charm that’s not too far west and very walkable, look no further than Forest Heights.

Here’s Forest Heights by the numbers-

Forest Heights*

Current On-Market Listings – 6
Average Asking Price: $356,000
Average Square Footage: 2234
Most Expensive: $625,000 (4 BR, 3.5 BA, 3400+ sq ft built in 1932)
Least Expensive: $199,000 (3 BR, 2 BA, 2000+ sq ft built in 1952)
Middle of the Road: $324,000 (4 BR, 2.5 BA, 2000+ sq ft built in 1950)

Current Pending Sales – 2
Average Asking Price: $175,000
Median Asking Price: NA

Closed Sales – 3rd Quarter 2009 – 1
List Price – $399,500
Sales Price – $350,000
Details - 4 BR, 2 BA, 2600+ sq ft, built in 1948
Days on Market – 76

Closed Sales – 3rd Quarter 2008 – 1
List Price – $210,000
Sales Price – $207,000
Details - 3 BR, 1 BA, 1400 sq ft, built in 1950
Days on Market – 26

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 10/19/09 for Forest Heights, Forest Hills, Highland Hills & Highland Hills Addition, and does not include adjacent subdivisions, condos or PUDS.

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 Forest Heights Listings” or “New Forest Heights Listings” in the subject line and I’ll take care of the rest. I seriously will not send you any unsolicited emails. Word.

Is there a neighborhood you’d like to see here next week? Let me know in the comments.

Tags: Bearden, Forest Heights, Historic Neighborhoods, Neighborhod of the Week, Walkable Communities, West Knoxville

Author: Suzy

Hard working Knoxville real estate agent by day. Intrepid Knoxville real estate blogger by night.