© 2009 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

© 2009 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

Located just east of Ebenezer on Westland Drive, Plantation Springs is a very nice neighborhood with lots of amenities. In addition to the land’s original manor house which residents can rent out for events, there are two swimming pools, two clubhouses, tennis courts, walking trails, and an exercise room. And of course there is the gate, which is open all day, but closes promptly at 7pm each evening.

© 2009 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

Plantation Springs contains both houses and condos, although there are quite a few more condos. It is a fairly new planned community and the style of the condos and homes reflect that, as there is a definite, traditional uniformity present throughout the neighborhood. All residences are built mostly of  brick with some minor stucco and siding accents.

© 2009 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

The neighborhood has two HOAS, one for the homeowners and one for the condos, and all lucky condo owners get to pay up for both.

© 2009 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

Plantation Springs is easily accessible via I-40, I-140, Ebenezer Road and Westland Drive.

So if you’re looking for an upscale planned community with a super convenient West Knoxville location, look no further than Plantation Springs.

© 2009 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

Special thanks to AAKT’s resident photographer, Robert Stockdale, for the great shots of Plantation Springs. If you would like to learn more about Robert’s work, please visit his website.

Here’s Plantation Springs by the numbers -

Plantation Springs*

Current On-Market Condo Listings – 3
Average Asking Price: $296,567
Median Asking Price: $289,900
Average Square Feet: 3527

Most Expensive: $299,900 (3 BR, 3 BA, 3800+ sq ft)

Least Expensive: $289,900 (3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2800+ sq ft)

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

Closed Condo Sales – 2nd Quarter 2009- 2
Average Asking Price – $286,700
Average Sales Price – $274,750
Median Sales Price – NA
Days on Market – 166

Closed Condo Sales – 2nd Quarter 2008 – 2
Average Asking Price – $299,850
Average Sales Price – $290,900
Median Sales Price – NA
Days on Market – 108

Current On-Market House Listings – 1
Asking Price: $384,855
Details: 3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2500+ sq ft

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

Closed House Sales – 2nd Quarter 2009- 0

Closed House Sales – 2nd Quarter 2008 – 1
Asking Price – $299,900
Sales Price – $282,000
Details-  3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2400
Days on Market -87

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 9/07/09 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 Plantation Springs Listings” or “New Plantation Springs Listings” in the subject line and I’ll take care of the rest. I don’t do the spam thing.

Know of a neighborhood that’s Neighborhood of the Week material?  Let me know about it and I’ll do my best to feature it as soon as possible.

It’s Home Sales Report time! It’s Home Sales Report time!

We’re well into the spring buying and selling season, and last month I had predicted that sales numbers might be up this month due to all the activity I’ve been seeing as well as the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit and super low rates. Well, I was kind of wrong. It happens.

But don’t lose hope yet! While the actual number of sales is still down, there actually is some good news buried in the numbers this month, and it’s a lot more good news than we’ve seen in a long, long time.

So let  break down the April home sale numbers the only way that I know how — AAKT style –  and tell you all about it.

First let’s start with …OMG look at all this good  news!

Average sales price for 2 or less BR homes is (way) up.
Apr ‘08 – $90,900
Apr ‘09 – $123,800

And, of course, there’s the inevitable not-so-good news -

Median sales price for 2 or less BR homes is (slightly) down.
Apr ‘08 – $79,200
Apr ‘09 – $74,700

Average sales price for 3 BR homes is (way) down.
Apr ‘08 – $163,600
Apr ‘09 – $151,300

Median sales price for 3 BR homes is down.
Apr ‘08 – $149,000
Apr ‘09 – $139,600

Average condo sales price is down.
Apr ‘08 – $164,300
Apr ‘09 – $160,300

I’ve been curious about the progress of the new Brownlow Lofts for a while and was excited when I got to take a little tour of them last week. The Lofts are in the 96-year-old  Brownlow Elementary School at 1305 Luttrell St in 4th and Gill and prices currently range from $103,900 for a 600+ sq ft 1 BR, 1 BA to $225,000 for a 1100+ sq ft 2 BR, 2 BA.

The project has been very slow to get off the ground, but there was a lot of construction activity when I was there, and while the units aren’t finished yet, you can see from the pictures that some are well on their way.

As always if you have any questions or would like more information on the lofts, just give me a shout.

OK, before I even start breaking down the December 2008 Home Sales Report in the All Around KTown style, let’s get a few things straight -

1. I do not make these numbers up. They come straight from the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors, not my brain. If the numbers aren’t that great, that doesn’t mean I’m a negative or pessimistic person. Iit just means the numbers aren’t that great.
2. I am a real estate agent. I’m not a real estate hater and I’m not here to make agents or the Knoxville real estate market look bad. I’m just trying to give as candid a snapshot of the market as I know how.
3. I wish I had better news for you. Seriously, I wish as much as anyone – maybe even more than anyone – that the numbers we’ve seen over the last few months were better than they have been. But I also don’t believe that me blowing wind up your collective skirts about the state of the Knoxville real estate market helps anything or anybody.
4. People are still buying and selling homes in Knoxville. If they weren’t, I’d be out of work and blogging about something else right now, like funny cat pictures, fondue, or my unhealthy obsession with finding the perfect office chair at a reasonable price.

Now then -

Earlier this week, Josh Flory over at Property Scope wrote about the glut of high end homes currently on the market in the Knoxville area. As he pointed out, in December ‘08 there were 3,12o homes over $300,000 for sale – the equivalent of a 42 month supply. Yikes.

Because I love the charts – and because I know you do too – I decided to graph out December’s active and closed listings by price range.  First let’s look at a snapshot of just the active listings-

Now let’s look at listings vs. closings in those same price ranges -

That last graph should give you an idea of not only what all home sellers are facing right now, but especially what folks in the upper price ranges are up against. And if you’re one of those people, please keep these numbers in mind the next time you want to unload on your Realtor for your home still being on the market. Just sayin’.

Now for the breakdown -

Someday soon there will be good news to start with, but for now, we have to start with the not-so-good news -

Average sales price for 2 or less BR homes is down.
Dec ‘07 – $99,800
Dec ‘08 – $97,100

Median sales price for 2 or less BR homes is (slightly) down.
Dec ‘07 – $77,900
Dec ‘08 – $77,500

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

This week Neighborhood of the Week heads to the center of the city to explore an area it’s shied away from until now – Downtown Knoxville.

The main reason I’ve not covered downtown condos and lofts until now is that it’s a fairly daunting task. Not only is there a good bit of history and intrigue surrounding all of those building and developments, but there are also just an awful lot of them: roughly 80 active listings on the north side of the river in over 14 different developments. I’ve simply been torn about whether to try and feature them each separately or to just lump them together somehow. That is until tonight.

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

Tonight I was in the Sunsphere – for the first time since ‘82 no less – talking to some folks about the general state of the Knoxville real estate market when the conversation turned to downtown and how it’s faring through all of this. Was it doing better than the rest of town? Worse? And how much are all those places selling for anyway? Can anyone actually afford to live there?

And that’s when I thought to myself, “Self, why not just give your friendly AAKT readers a general overview of how the downtown condo scene is doing and then worry about breaking each development down individually later?”

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

So that’s what this week’s NOTW is all about – giving you guys a rough idea of  what’s selling – and what’s not selling – in downtown K-Town. My plan is to go back and cover individual developments in the very near future, so if any of you live somewhere in the downtown area you think is worth featuring here, please give me a shout. I’d love to have some juicy insider info to pass along.

© 2008 Robert Stockdale Photography, All Rights Reserved.

So without further ado, here’s downtown Knoxville by the numbers -

Downtown Knoxville Condos/Lofts*

Current On-Market Listings -82
Average Asking Price: $347,285
Median Asking Price: $319,950
Average Sq Footage: 1459
Average Asking Price Per Sq Ft: $238

Most Expensive: $1,250,000 (3 BR, 3 BA, 3400+ sq ft Penthouse in The Holston building)
Least Expensive: $163,460 (1 BR, 1 BA, 700+ sq ft in The Commerce Lofts)
Middle of the Road: $320,000 (2 BR, 1 1/2 BA, 1800+ sq ft in The Lerner Lofts)

Current Pending Sales -13*
Average Asking Price: $254,355
Median Asking Price:$308,925
*10 of the currently 13 pending sales are in The Commerce Lofts and many were put into pending over 5 months ago, so I’m not sure what the real status of these is.

Closed Sales – Q3 2007 – 9
Average Asking Price - $273,744
Average Sales Price – $267,656
Average Closed Price Per Sq Ft – $183
Median Sales Price – $208,000
Average Days on Market – 137

Closed Sales – Q3 2008 – 7
Average Asking Price – $315,243
Average Sales Price – $299,436
Average Closed Price Per Sq Ft – $225
Median Sales Price – $234,000
Average Days on Market – 213

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 12/08/08 does not include adjacent subdivisions, condos, PUDS, or multi-family units.

As always, if you want any more information about any of these properties 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 Downtown Condo Listings” or “New Downtown Condo Listings” in the subject line and I’ll take care of the rest. Save the spammy for your mammy.

Know of a great community that would make an equally great NOTW? Let your voice be heard in the comments.

Special thanks to AAKT’s in-house photographer, Robert Stockdale. Without him, NOTW would be just a bunch of boring text. Find out more about Robert’s work here.

photo credit: pattie74_99

The Weekly Poll is up and ready and rarin’ to go. Go ahead and give it a good left clickin’.

This week’s topic is downtown condos. There are lots of new condos for sale in downtown KTown and lots more being built, but with an average cost of almost $250 per square foot and an average size of just under 1400 sq ft, they may not be affordable or practical for every buyer. So what about you? Would you live in downtown or is it too expensive? Or maybe it’s just not practical? Would it be your dream or your worst nightmare? Cast your vote and let me know.

And while a downtown loft might be a little out of your reach, you can always have the latest news on the Knoxville real estate market right at your fingertips – subscribe to All Around KTown in a feed reader or by email today!

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

A few weeks ago I had a chance to take a tour of North Central Village, a new development of affordable, urban condos at the corner of Broadway and Central, just north of downtown. Lucky for you, I took my camera.

Prices range from $85,000 to $165,000 and size ranges from around 400 sq ft to just over 1000 sq ft. Amenities include keyless entry to building and units, deeded and secured parking, and wi-fi throughout the building.

Given the $200+ per sq ft it costs to buy downtown, I think it’s very cool to see units not too far from the city center that are this affordable.