September 2009 Knoxville Home Sales Report

 September has come and gone and now that it’s safely behind us, it’s time to take a look at the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors’ Home Sales Report numbers to see what went down in the Knoxville area housing market in the month that was.

Now, if you’re not sitting down, I want you to go ahead and do so. Why? Because for the first time in a long, long, long, long, very long time, there’s honest to goodnesss GOOD news in the breakdown this month! Not only were sales up, but sales prices were also up for some price ranges. Up! As Josh Flory reported last week:

Total sales of single-family, MLS-listed homes and condos added up to 993 units in September, compared to 931 units in September of 2008. That was the first year-over-year increase in the MLS numbers since June of 2006.

OK, now you can get up out of your seat and do your happy dance. I’ll wait.

Done? OK. Just so you understand why I’m so excited about this, here’s a visual aid to show you where we’ve been over the last few years.

See how every single year is slowly going down, down, down in terms of closed units? Now see that little gray line at the bottom? That’s 2009. Kind of sad for most of the year huh? Now look at how it crossed up over the little green line, aka 2008. THAT’S what I’m talking about.

Yes, it’s a small victory. And yes, it’s most likely due to the infamous $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. And no, I don’t know if this upward trend will continue after the end of November when the tax credit is set to expire. But my guess – and my broker’s guess as well – is that we will see continue to see healthy sales numbers into October and November as a result of that tax credit. Hey, I’ll take what I can get.

And just in case you’re curious, here are charts showing both active listings and months of inventory by month from 2005 to the present:

As you can see, active listings have been mostly down this year over last year, probably because many sellers chose not to list their homes during this market. However, active listings  have risen slightly over the past two months. A possible sign of increased seller confidence in the market? You decide.

Here, you can see that inventory started spiking around  August 2008 and after rising quite sharply, has more or less been dropping steadily all year. And yes, that’s a good thing .

Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m getting ready to break down the September 2009 Home Sales Report, using the word “up”  more than I’ve ever gotten to in a while. And you know I’m lovin’ that.

 Here’s all that good news -

Average sales price for 2 or less BR homes is up.
Sep  ’08 – $88,600
Sep  ’09 – $96,100

Median sales price for 2 or less BR homes is up.
Sep  ’08 – $78,000
Sep  ’09 – $80,700

Average sales price for 3 BR homes is up.
Sep  ’08 – $154,900
Sep  ’09 – $156,800

Median sales price for 4+ BR homes is up.
Sep  ’08 – $216,000
Sep  ’09 – $219,000

Average condo sales price is up.
Sep  ’08 – $162,700
Sep  ’09 – $168,300

  And yes, there’s also some not so good news. Just not as much:

Median sales price for 3 BR homes is down.
Sep  ’08 – $142,500
Sep  ’09 – $139,000

Median condo sales price is down.
Sep  ’08 – $147,400
Sep  ’09 – $139,900

 —

…while FHA loans were once again up.
Sep  ’08 – 208
Sep  ’09 – 259

And here’s the “Condo owners say sell, house owners say maybe later” news-

The number of new residential listings was down ...
Sep  ’08 – 2,553
Sep  ’09 – 2,401

…and the number of new condo listings was up.
Sep  ’08 – 255
Sep  ’09 – 271

 And finally, there’s the “Honey, let’s just get this thing sold” news-

1. Knoxville residential and condo sales, while not rock hard, are showing some signs of firming. Think chilled butter as opposed to room temperature butter.
2.  The promise of getting an $8,0000 check after the closing coupled with still historic low interest rates is definitely pushing some first time buyers into the market and creating a rise in demand – and pricing – in smaller homes.
3. A good percentage of those first timers are going FHA either by choice or by necessity.
4. The continued trend in reduced listing prices tells me that sellers are getting serious about selling.
5. Larger, more expensive homes continue to suffer, partially due to an inventory glut, a lack of higher end buyers, and, let’s face it, lack of a higher end tax credit.
6.  Did you hear that? That was the sound of agents all over Knoxville breathing a collective sigh of relief. Aaahhh.

If you’re interested in looking at both reports yourself, here is ’08 and here is ’09. Enjoy and please feel free to share your thoughts and observations.

Tags: Home Sales Report, KAAR

Author: Suzy

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