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The Tri-Cities primary home buying and selling season is finally underway with a small, but favorable inventory increase.

Although the $200K-$300K inventory has the largest share, homes in the $300K to $400K and $400K to $500K have the best balanced market status position.

The TCI Group’s Annualized Home Sales Tracker for April is a continuation of a stable trajectory display with minor fluctuations. It’s a pattern that suggests the Tri-Cities housing market has maintained a healthy and resilient market presence that has gradually returned to a pre-pandemic level without major volatility.

Despite local inventory improvements, the housing market will remain mostly a seller’s market for the rest of the year. Balanced or nearly balanced market conditions in several price tiers will offer some relief to buyers, but the bottom line is a short-term solution to the housing shortage – like affordability – is unlikely.

Currently, the local market is on a 5% sales decline track. Prices are tracking a little better than 8%. The sales trend will probably improve unless the prime selling and buying season is a total bust. The annual outlook is for an appreciation trend in the 4% range. Like all outlooks, that’s guidance, not gospel.

The market segment that continues to show the strongest performance is the $1 million plus category. During the first quarter of this year it was up 80% from the first three months of the previous year.

Here’s how the $1 million plus sales that accounted for 3% of April’s annualized sales looked during the 12 months ending in mid April:

• Bristol region – 10
• Greeneville region – 12
• Johnson City region – 47
• Kingsport region – 11

The next highest luxury market performer was properties in the $600K to $700K range. Annualized sales in that price range total 192 or 3% of the region’s total sales.

Categories: CORE DATA