A recurring theme in monthly local home sales reports over the past two and a half years has been a decline in home sales, typically referred to as a pullback to pre-pandemic market levels. While the regional trend descriptions are accurate, in the hyper-local world of real estate, a different story is unfolding in community markets that contradicts regional trends.
The May figures are a good example.
Bristol, Virginia has a lot going for it. The Hard Rock Casino is fueling an increasingly vibrant business and tourism economy. But residential growth is another matter. Until recently, the city has always lagged behind when it comes to sales growth.
Bristol, Virginia, had the top growth rate for home sales in the region in May, with sales up 95% so far this year over last year. Median prices over the five-month period were not as trending, but still outperformed the regional average.
Another community market seeing strong sales growth this year is Irwin, with sales up 44% over a five-month period.
The third strongest trend in May was seen in Kingsport, with sales in the model city up 24.7% compared to the first five months of last year.
The eight community markets that surpassed their local growth levels over the five-month period are:
- Mountain City, up 24.2%
- Jonesboro, up 21.7%
- Bulls Gap rises 14.3%
- Greenville, up 11.8%
- Blountville, up 10.4%
The area’s average sales price in May increased 5.1% compared to the first five months of last year.
12 regional markets and 22 regional markets performed better.
Price growth in community markets is uncertain as it can be heavily distorted by higher or lower sales in markets with fewer sales. But with that being said, here are the markets that have had better five-month growth than community prices for the first five months of the year:
- Bulls Gap rises 38.6%
- Lone Mountain, up 24.8%
- Elizabethton, up 22.6%
- Bristol, Tennessee, up 22.2%
- Telford, up 22%
- Morrisburg, up 18%
- Mount Carmel, up 16.8%
- Greenville, up 14.4%
- Rogersville, up 11.6%
- Jonesboro, up 10.3%
- Johnson City, up 8.1%
- Bristol VA, up 5.8%
