BY DON FENLEY

GRAY, Tenn. – The Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) has served up a benchmarking look back at how the local counties’ real estate industry’s GDP looked coming out of the pandemic. GDP is the industry’s total economic output. The most current Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is for 2021.

Tracking where the real estate industry is a prime consideration for serious local economy watchers. Existing home sales alone account for about 15% of each county’s economy. Combine that with the new home industry and it’s what new residents shopping the area look at. And don’t forget what happens after the sale of an existing home. Most of them in our area is like the local demographic. They have some age on them, so new owners hit the upgrade routine early. Sometimes it’s minor things, but an increasing number of upgrades and remodels are at or above the six-figure range.

The bottom line is real estate is a big deal when it comes to local economies. NETAR is a consistent data source for that type of local information.

Unfortunately, the year-over-year percent change for the local and regional Combined Statistical Area (CSA) was not disclosed “avoid disclosure of confidential information.” However, most of that data from the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and the counties is in the report.

The Johnson City metro area had the largest percentage change from the previous year – 8.4%. That was the second-highest gain among East Tennessee metro areas. Knoxville was up 8.5%. Both were well ahead of the state’s 5.7% gain.

Kingsport-Bristol’s total real estate economic output was up 5.6%.

County-level standouts were Washington, TN, and Hawkins counties. The only county where the year-over-year gain was suppressed was Unicoi Co.

Here’s how the county-level real estate economic gains looked for the pandemic recovery year.

Washington, TN – up 17.2%

Hawkins – up 11.4%

Washington, VA – up 5.2%

Sullivan – up 3.3%

Greene – up 3%

Carter – up 2.8%

Scott VA – up 2.4%

Johnson – up 2.2%

© 2023 donfenley.com

Categories: ECONOMY