Since we are now nearly to the end of April, it is certainly time to close the books on March 2011 Smoky Mountain residential sales!
The month did pump up a little better than I expected and our MLS now reports 130 homes sold by members of our Great Smoky Mountain Association of Realtors during March. My quick take on this is that we are still comparing to last year’s numbers that were significantly impacted positively by the government’s first time home buyer tax credit which certainly served to encourage some buyers to jump into the market. Although we were down compared to March 2010, we did have (as expected) a significantly better month than January or February was. This isn’t a surprise at all as January and February are almost always slow months for our area (and most of the U.S. real estate market). Here’s a link to the PDF document of the same spreadsheet that we have created.
With one third of the year nearly complete, I think we can assume that sales will not likely be as strong as last year. Of course, the future is VERY hard to predict and I for one do much better reporting on the past’s results. With this having been said, my guess is that April will come in around 120 units at most, which isn’t really that good a number. Sales have been slow so far this month for most firms in the county according to the MLS, but then again, we haven’t hit the all-important month end blitz.
It is still an excellent environment for prospective buyers of Gatlinburg area real estate. Several excellent properties are coming to market soon that you will certainly want to see. Sevierville residences, Pigeon Forge log cabins, and Gatlinburg chalets are all coming through the pipeline now and I expect prices very soon. Stay tuned, there are some real bargains coming very soon!!