Although Sullivan Co. led the region in new permits for high-end homes in Q1 the Johnson City region led the region for existing high-end home listings and resales.

New permits for Tri-Cities high-end homes during the first three months of this year increased while permit pulls in the Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Asheville metro markets declined from Q1 2018 totals.

That’s a reversal of the trend pattern for the annual permits for homes 4,000 square feet or more and with a permit value of $400,000 or more. Last year’s high-end construction was higher in all of the metro areas except the Tri-Cities.

Sullivan Co. led the seven-county Tri-Cities region monitored by The Market Edge with six permits in Q1. Washington Co. TN and Washington Co. VA had four new permits each, and there was one new permit in Greene Co.

Although the Tri-Cities had a higher year-over-year quarterly growth rate, its’ new permits total was at the bottom of the regional permit totals. Here are those totals looked like compared to the same quarter last year:

Asheville – 129, down from 141.

Knoxville – 86, down from 89.

Chattanooga – 22, down from 40.

Tri-Cities – 15, up from 11.

The annual high-end home permit trend in the Tri-Cities declined last year while it increased in area metro areas.

Asheville led the region in new high-end permits last year (578) followed by Knoxville (403) then Chattanooga (128) and Tri-Cities (71)

The local high-end existing home market had 399 regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS) listings in mid-May. That represents 14.9% of the region’s total listings. This time last year there were 402 listings.

A drill-down of May listings shows:

–  239 in the $400,000 to $599,000 price range.

• 88 in the $600,000 to $799,999 price range.
• 72 in the $800,000 and above price range.

The Johnson City region had was home to most of the high-end (185) followed by the Bristol TN-VA market with 79. The Kingsport region had 78 high-end listings. The Johnson City region had the most listing for $800,000 and above (34).

There were 262 sales of high-end homes in the 12 months ending in mid-May compared to 269 during the 12 months ending in May last year. A drill-down on the most recent 12 months of high-end sales shows:

– 206 in the $400,000 to $599,999 price range. That’s five fewer than the 12 months ending in May 2018.

– 45 in the $600,000 to $799,999 price range. That two fewer than the 12 months ending in May 2018.

– 18 in the $800,000 and above price range. Unchanged from the 12 months ending in May 2018.

The Johnson City region had the highest number of sales in the $800,000 over price rage – 10, down from 12 during the previous period. It also had the highest number of sales of listings in the $400,000 to $599,999 price range – 113 up from 107 in the previous period. In the $600,000 to $799,999 price range, it had 28 sales in the 12 months ending in May this year compared to 33 in the previous period.

Categories: CORE DATA, REAL ESTATE