You may have read some national headlines lately regarding the housing market, but how have Knoxville home sales fared? The National Association of REALTORS® recently released their Existing Home Sales report and like most typical news sources, many headlines are blowing January’s decline in home sales out of proportion to grab attention, without really looking at the numbers. Headlines such as, “Existing home sales collapse in January despite low mortgage rates”.
Anyone in real estate can share with you the common knowledge that there is a slowdown in the winter months. Many markets share this seasonality and January is where it often hits. This can be seen by the graph below. But what the news media doesn’t share is that nationally, existing home sales increased by 200,000. Knoxville home sales, in January of 2015 saw a 10.1% increase over January of 2014 and Farragut home sales saw a 33.3% increase! Over the last year, Knoxville also saw the median sales price increase by 11.62%, Farragut saw a 3.32% increase. A big reason Knoxville home sales are down in January of this year, is that the inventory of homes for sale in Knoxville and Farragut have decreased, Knoxville by 8.7% from January of last year and Farragut down 12.5%. On a month to month basis, inventory in Knoxville has decreased by 7% from December of 2014 with Farragut down 6%. You might be asking yourself, where has the inventory gone? Much of it is now under contract, as the number of homes “pending sale” increased from December of 2014 to January of 2015 by 25% in Knoxville and 27% in Farragut! This screams that buyers are in the market and that equals demand.
So demand is there, as witnessed by the graphic below showing that buyer demand is actually 3x greater than last year.
The chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, Lawrence Yun, mentioned what he feels is the real cause of the January slowdown: “Realtors® are reporting that low rates are attracting potential buyers, but the lack of new and affordable listings is leading some to delay decisions.”
The buyer demand is there, buyers are out looking, but they are having trouble finding their dream home amongst the low inventory.
What does this mean for you?
If your plan was to wait until Spring to sell your home in Knoxville or Farragut, that plan may not help you get the most money for your home with the fastest sale. The information above points to right now being the optimum time to go to market. If you have any questions about selling or you would like to sit down and discuss your plans, contact me, Troy Stavros with Gables & Gates, REALTORS® to schedule a time that works best for you. Interested in finding out how much you could sell your Knoxville or Farragut house for? CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.