As gas prices head ever higher it shouldn’t be surprising that more and more buyers are looking to be closer to the work, recreation, church, or wherever they spend the majority of their time. It is showing up in a quiet way as houses that are further from the focus of our Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville communities are harder to sell and when they do sell go for less. This is sort of like the old “location, location, location!” but maybe from more of an accountant’s viewpoint.

As gas prices continue to climb this summer it could well be that homes that are a long ways out from town centers will become nearly impossible to sell. With home prices generally down from a year ago and the supply of Sevier County real estate huge, buyers have their pick of lots of properties. It is my recent experience that good communities in great proximity to the center point of a city are in greater demand than just a year ago.

While Americans may not be eager to trade our SUV’s, pickups, and full size sedans for compact and even smaller automobiles it does make sense that more of us will become “commute conscious”. I expect that shorter commutes will be the answer to offsetting the larger portion of our incomes that gasoline is consuming.

Although this is mainly conjecture on my part it does make a lot of sense if you think about it a little. If you are considering taking advantage of the current historic opportunity for real estate buyers make sure that the home you purchase doesn’t require a daunting commute. It could become a very difficult re-sale property in the future.