While our market is starting to improve from the horrible pace of last year, some types of houses in our Gatlinburg area real estate market are still in a condition of extreme oversupply. One category that this is certainly true of is our area’s more expensive (over $300,000) residences. There are 213 homes currently listed for sale in Sevier County that are priced above $300,000 and have some sort of garage or carport (to eliminate most vacation rental properties). This doesn’t sound like so many until you find that during the 12 months ended January 31, 2010 there were only 31 properties with the same description that were sold. With a 7+ year supply it seems likely that these home sellers will likely continue to be frustrated – a Buyer’s Market by anyone’s definition.
With these houses being such slow sellers you might wonder which category is selling the best. The answer is the affordable entry level residences. With 43 sales in the past 12 months vs. only 15 active properties under $100,000 this group shows only a little less than a four month supply. This slice of our overall market is, in contrast, a Seller’s Market. If you are looking for a great price on a nice Sevier County home, we have several bank owned properties that are being offered for less than 70% of what they sold for just a few years ago!