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Feature article
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Home values roughly equal in Tri-Cities
By Matthew Lane
Average price of house in area $140,000
Home values in the Tri-Cities region are just about equal, real estate experts say. “Dollar for dollar, house for house, the values are fairly the same throughout the region,” said Jerry Petzoldt of TCI Group. “If you are going to buy a 2,000-square-foot, 10-year-old home in Johnson City, you’d pay the same price in Kingsport, Bristol or Greeneville. That’s why we’re a true region.”
Research by Tennessee/Virginia Multiple Listing Service shows that the average home sales price in Kingsport last year — $116,252 — was nearly $20,000 less than that in Johnson City — $135,077.
Petzoldt said that there’s a growing trend of embracing the region as a whole — as opposed to separating the “big three” of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol.
Gary Baker, managing broker at Town and Country Realty, said that during the last 12 months, 2,927 homes were sold in Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol, an increase of around 100 homes during the previous year.
Breaking that down by city: 947 homes sold in Kingsport, 1,382 homes sold in Johnson City and 598 homes sold in Bristol.
On average, homes in Kingsport rose in price by 2 percent, in Johnson City by 4 percent and in Bristol by a whopping 12 percent.
The average price of a home in Bristol went from $112,734 to $127,026.
“On average, it’s usually around a 3 percent increase, but that 12 percent jump was huge and I don’t have a clue why,” Baker said.
The average price of a home in the Tri-Cities is $140,492 and remained on the market an average of 110 days, Baker said.
“That’s pretty much been the average for the Tri-Cities. There’s usually not a lot of fluctuation,” Baker said. “Our market has been pretty steady and the only time it peaks is when a big company lays off a bunch of people.”
The rise and decline of interest rates also rarely affects the Tri-Cities, Baker added.
“When they go up people will lower the price of their house and when the rate goes down, house prices go up.”
The high price for a home in the Tri-Cities was $1.35 million with the low price being $7,500.
The total value of homes sold in the Tri-Cities during the past 12 months came to $411,219,581.
“That many houses sold was a pretty good number, and it’s a little above average of what we normally sell,” Baker said. “We usually sell around 2,200 or 2,300 home.”
In addition to roughly equal home values, the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors predicts the real estate market in 2005 should be booming.
“Overall sales in 2004 easily surpassed the previous record in 2003,” said Karen Randolph, with NETAR. “According to the National Association of Realtors, 2005 is forecasted to be another great year for home sales, but not expected to match last year’s record.”
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