REAL ESTATE | April 20, 2026
Tri-Cities $1-Million Plus Housing Market Sees Sharp Decline
The Tri-Cities high-end housing market is navigating a classic high-price, low-velocity environment — fewer sales, but higher prices among those who do buy, and a decisive shift toward cash. First-quarter closings in the $1 million-plus segment totaled 12 sales, down from 19 in Q1 2025, a decline of nearly 37%. Despite the volume contraction, the average sale price rose to $1,361,017 from $1,291,342 a year earlier. March produced only two closings in the bracket, including the quarter’s top sale: a $1,499,000 lodge-style estate on 15 acres in Roan Mountain. The financing mix shifted dramatically. Last year conventional loans backed 10 of 19 sales. This year cash buyers claimed eight of 12 closings. Washington County remained the region’s luxury leader but its dominance narrowed, accounting for five of 12 sales versus 10 of 19 a year ago. Average finished square footage declined from 5,160 to 4,647 square feet, and days on market surged 81% from 102 to 185 days. Against that backdrop, 96 active listings priced at $1 million or above are on the market — a supply level that far outpaces the current absorption rate.
Tri-Cities $1-Million Plus Housing Market Sees Sharp Decline
CoreData Insight
The $1 million-plus market is telling a story the broader market has not yet told. The shift from conventional to cash financing is the most structurally significant data point — it signals that the pool of buyers willing and able to transact at this price point has narrowed to those insulated from rate sensitivity. That’s a smaller universe, which explains both the volume decline and the extended days on market. The 96 active listings against 12 Q1 closings implies an absorption rate that, if sustained, would take more than two years to clear current supply. For sellers in this tier, the market has fundamentally changed: pricing discipline and patience are no longer optional. The luxury softening that appeared in the $500K-plus concession data from Q1 is now confirmed and amplified at the top of the market.
REAL ESTATE | April 17, 2026
Tri-Cities Housing Trend Key Focused on Urban Core Markets
The Tri-Cities posted a broadly positive Q1 2026, with regional home sales up 10.9% year over year at 1,721 closings and a regional median price edging up 1.9% to $275,000. But the headline numbers masked a market increasingly split between accelerating urban cores and retreating smaller communities. Of 16 sub-markets with meaningful sales volume, nine posted year-over-year gains while seven declined — and the gains were heavily concentrated in the region’s largest employment centers. Johnson City recorded a 25.9% sales increase with the strongest price appreciation among major markets at 15.4%, reaching a $349,000 median. Kingsport closings rose 20.6% to a $263,134 median, up 4.4%. Bristol, TN, surged 55.4% in volume, though its $218,000 median slipped 1%, suggesting the gain was driven by lower price-range activity. On the other side of the ledger, Jonesborough sales fell 15.7% with a 10% price correction — the sharpest among mid-sized markets. Rogersville dropped 16.3%. Abingdon, Va., recorded a 10.7% sales decline with a 19.4% price drop. At the upper price tier, Gray ($382,000 median) and Piney Flats ($442,500 median) held their positions as the region’s highest-priced sub-markets. Bristol, Va., posted the strongest price dynamics in the region with an 18.3% year-over-year increase.
CoreData Insight
The urban core concentration of Q1 demand is the defining structural story of the 2026 market so far. Johnson City and Kingsport are not just leading in volume — Johnson City’s 15.4% price appreciation is running well ahead of the regional median gain of 1.9%, indicating genuine pricing power rooted in employment-driven demand. The Bristol, TN, surge in volume without price growth is a different dynamic: activity is up because more buyers can afford entry-level product there, not because the market has repriced upward. The divergence between urban core strength and smaller market retreat — particularly the Jonesborough and Abingdon pullbacks — raises the question of whether Q1’s regional headline gain is durable or dependent on continued outperformance from two or three markets. If Johnson City and Kingsport moderate, the regional aggregate will follow.
REAL ESTATE | April 16, 2026
Tri-Cities Home Sales up 10%, Prices up 4.4%
The Tri-Cities housing market posted a 10.3% sales gain in March with 641 closings across the nine-county region. The broad-based advance spanned most local markets, though headline numbers were driven in part by small-market volatility. Mountain City and Erwin led all qualifying markets with gains of 200% and 166.7% respectively — percentage swings common in low-volume markets where a handful of closings can move the needle sharply. More telling were the gains in volume markets. Johnson City recorded 98 sales, a 34.2% year-over-year increase, reinforcing its position as one of the region’s most active markets. Kingsport closed 100 transactions, up 5.3%. Bristol, TN, added 34 closings, a 54.5% jump. Elizabethton and Blountville each tallied 25 sales with gains of 19% and 13.6% respectively. The regional median price came in at $282,000, up 4.4% from a year ago, signaling that pricing fundamentals remain intact even as individual markets diverge. Blountville posted the strongest median price gain at 30.5%, reaching $399,755. Johnson City’s median edged down 5.4% to $353,325 and Kingsport’s fell 12.8% to $278,000, though both remain among the region’s highest-volume markets. Consumer concerns over geopolitical events have not yet shown up in demand indicators, which continued to track positive through the first quarter.
CoreData Insight
The 10.3% March sales gain confirms that Q1’s momentum carried into the month, but the sub-market breakdown requires careful reading. Johnson City’s 34.2% volume gain paired with a 5.4% median price decline suggests mix shift — more sales in lower price ranges — rather than appreciation pressure. Kingsport’s 12.8% median decline alongside a 5.3% volume gain tells a similar story. These are not signs of market weakness; they are signs that buyer activity is concentrated in more attainable price points within those markets. The regional median holding at $282,000, up 4.4%, is the number that matters most for broad market health. The note on consumer concern over geopolitical events is worth flagging — the market has so far absorbed that uncertainty, but it bears monitoring as a leading sentiment indicator heading into spring selling season.
REAL ESTATE | April 14, 2026
Tri-Cities Multifamily Market Cools: Vacancy Up
The Tri-Cities multifamily market posted a mixed fourth quarter in 2025, with rent growth decelerating sharply and vacancy rates rising in both metro areas tracked by the National Association of Realtors. Both metros continued to outperform national benchmarks, but the direction of travel is clear. In the Johnson City metro, asking rent growth dropped from 5.9% a year earlier to 2.7% as vacancy jumped from 3.5% to 6.6%, with 431 new units absorbed into a market that grew to 8,564 total units. Cap rates held at 7.4%. In the Kingsport-Bristol metro, rent growth fell to just 0.7% from 2.8%, asking rents slipped from $1,130 to $1,113, and vacancy climbed from 5.0% to 6.2% — with only 15 new units added to reach 6,195 total, pointing to saturation at current rent levels rather than supply-driven softening. Cap rates held flat at 7.1%. ATTOM property data across 40 Tri-Cities ZIP codes showed improvement at the investment property level: vacant investment properties fell 27.9% in raw count from 1,830 to 1,319, dropping from 0.90% to 0.65% of total residential stock. The geographic footprint of vacancy shrank from 20 ZIP codes to 15. Remaining stress is concentrated in Bristol, Va. (3.63% vacancy rate), Kingsport’s 37665 zone (2.63%), Bristol, TN (1.48%), central Kingsport (1.04%), Greeneville’s 37745 ZIP (1.60%), and Johnson City’s 37601 zone (0.99%).
CoreData Insight
The multifamily picture is a two-speed story. At the metro level the softening is real — vacancy is rising and rent growth is fading as new supply enters faster than demand absorbs it. At the investment property level, the ATTOM data is more encouraging, with vacant investment properties down nearly 28% and stress increasingly consolidated in specific urban corridors. Cap rates holding in the 7.1%–7.4% range suggest the market has not yet repriced — which creates a window for investors but also a risk that repricing is delayed rather than avoided. The Kingsport-Bristol rent plateau at $1,113 with only 15 new units added is the market to watch: with virtually no new supply and flattening rents, something in the demand equation has weakened. Bristol, Va., carrying the region’s highest investment property vacancy rate at 3.63%, remains the most vulnerable submarket if rent growth does not recover in 2026.
REAL ESTATE | April 14, 2026
Tri-Cities Housing Markets Hold Firmly in Seller Conditions; Annualized Trend Shows Sales Momentum
Every county in the Tri-Cities nine-county region is operating in seller’s market conditions, even as consumer concerns about prices and geopolitical uncertainty grow. April market reports from the TCI Group and Realtors Property Resource show months-of-inventory readings across all nine counties at or below the 5.5-month seller’s market threshold under RPR standards. Unicoi County posted the tightest median days on market at nine days. The region’s core urban corridor — Sullivan County at 40 days and Washington County, Tenn. at 32 days — held in moderately tight conditions. Washington County, Va. (64 days), Hawkins County (62 days) and Johnson County (56 days) were the slowest, but all remained in seller’s market territory. TCI Group data shows the affordable and move-up segments firmly in seller’s conditions region-wide, while the upper-luxury tier has crossed into buyer’s market conditions in most local markets. The TCI Group Annualized Sales Tracker reached 7,120 units in April — the highest reading since mid-2022. The tracker peaked at 8,794 units in September 2021 before declining to a post-peak trough of 6,596 units in June 2025, a contraction of roughly 25%. The April 2026 reading remains approximately 19% below the 2021 peak and about 10% below the pre-pandemic baseline of late 2019.
Tri-Cities Housing Markets Hold Firmly in Seller Conditions; Annualized Trend Shows Sales Momentum
CoreData Insight
The annualized tracker crossing 7,100 units is a meaningful threshold — it signals the market has moved past the rate-shock adjustment that defined 2022–2024 and is building momentum at a new normal for mortgage rates. The seller’s market classification across all nine counties provides important context: volume is growing because demand is real, not because supply has loosened. The luxury crossover into buyer’s market conditions is the exception that proves the rule — above $500,000, buyers have leverage; below that line, sellers still do. For real estate professionals and investors, the actionable read is that pricing power remains intact in the affordable and move-up tiers but requires closer management at the high end. Both indicators bear monitoring as geopolitical events and related consumer concerns develop through the spring.
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