Kingsport's August home sales follow the national blip down

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

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Kingsport's August home sales follow the national blip down

Published Monday, September 28 2009 - (0) Comments

It looks like Kingsport has fallen back to its old economic trends pattern.

Until recently the Kingsport region was spared the worst of the Great Recession's employment, sales tax and housing market jolts. In fact, at one point the Kingsport-Bristol MSA ranked third best in the nation for home price appreciation. That came at a time when most other areas' prices were in the toilet. But that was then and now is now.

Kingsport is back to a pattern where it mirrors or lags the national economic bad news.

August's unemployment was somewhat of exception. The state jobless rate was 10.8 percent and national unemployment rates were 9.7 percent while it was 9.4 percent in Kingsport.

The same wasn't the case for August's existing home sales. The national numbers backed off a 4-month winning streak to post a loss. Kingsport's sales broke a six-month string of small but steady sales volume increases during August with slight drop in sales. But when looking at the year-to-date sales compared to the same period last year, Kingsport is 25 percent off the sales pace.

Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors President Carla Dunn says she thinks the local market will experience a bumpy period for the next six months or so as it experiences ups and downs while gaining a toehold on a firm recovery.

A bright spot for Kingsport came in the August value index for properties in the 37665 area - it was up 21.2%.

Here's what the Zillow.com Home Value Index for August looked like in Kingsport zip codes.

37660:
Month-to-month, down 2.6%.
Quarter-to-quarter, down 3.37%.
Median listing price $145,000.

37663:
Month-to-month, down 5.6%.
Quarter-to-quarter, no data.
Median listing price $169,900.

37664:
Month-to-month, down 5.6%.
Quarter-to-quarter, down 8.1%.
Median listing price $169,900.

37665:
Month-to-month, up 21.2%.
Quarter-to-quarter, up 21.2%.
Median listing price $109,000.

According to data gleaned from Trilla.com:
- The median sales prince in the 37660 zip code area August was $89,900, down 9.1 percent from last year.
- The median sales price in the 37663 zone was $135,000 down 8.1 percent from last year.
- In 37664 the median sales price was $126,000 up 8.65 percent from last year.
- The 37665 median sales price was $42,000 down 32.2 percent from last year.

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