As it has been quite a while since my last post I have a number of topics available to write about. The most important however is the reason that I haven’t written about Gatlinburg area real estate in almost two weeks. The reason is quite simply that we have been BUSY. With six pending transactions and several interested buyers currently looking to make purchases it seems that our Gatlinburg area real estate market may finally be finding its footing. Prices are attractive, interest rates are still low, and the feeling locally is that our market is ready to rebound.

Sadly, many other agents in our Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville area don’t seem to be enjoying the same success that we are. In fact, as of today, there have only been 77 residential units sold so far this month by area Realtors. Of course, my normal caveat applies in that most real estate transactions occur at month’s end and not all sales are reported by board members immediately.

A good example of this was just last month when on May 1st our board’s MLS database showed only 88 residential real estate sales. Within a couple of weeks the final tally for May 2008 was a much improved, but still paltry, 107 residential real estate units sold. Based on the current pace I expect the final tally for May to be ahead of April’s totals but still well off of last year’s May sales which totaled 228. Stay tuned, we’ll have the numbers on a preliminary basis in just about a week and please excuse me if I don’t post much between now and then!