The graph below compares this year's 3rd quarter (July, August, & September) sales figures with past years. There's no denying the volume is still sliding although it does show some signs of leveling off a bit.

Typically at this time of year we're started a season decline which continues into early the following year and then starts a climb back to the traditional peak summer selling season. This year the sales seems to be holdin up longer than usualy according to the graph below which compares 2009 year to date sales with previous years.

As you can see by the red line representing Knoxville sales so far in 2009, the numbers of sales seems to be holding up longer than as in past years. I believe a significant number of those sales are being driven by the $8,000 tax credit that expires at the end of November. It will be interesting to see what happens to the numbers at that time.

We’ve talked a lot about sales numbers but how are prices holding up in this depressed market? Fairly well actually. We haven’t seen any really depressed prices compared to some of the harder hit markets like south Florida, California, Michigan, and others. I believe home values have fallen some in the great Knoxville area but not dramatically.

In the Knoxville, Tennessee real estate market a typical sale is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath homes with a two car garage and somewhere between 1500 to 2200 square feet. Here’s how the median prices of those types of homes have fared over the past 10 years.

The median price is simply the price at which half of the homes sold are more expensive and the other half are less expensive, fewer sales of cheaper homes moves the median higher, all else being equal. Since our median price is down to $139,900 in the 3rd quarter of 2009 versus a high of $154,500 in the third quarter of 2007 that means we’re selling more less expensive houses than higher priced ones.

Those statistics are born out by the absorption rates (time to sell) of Knoxville area homes. Today there is a 42 months supply of Knoxville homes priced over one million dollars and only a 9 months supply of those homes priced between $100,000 to $150,000.

Bottom line any way you slice and dice it: Knoxville TN home sales are down compared to the booming market of just a couple of year ago and as long as mortgages continue to be difficult to obtain and unemployment continues to be in the 10% range I don’t see many reasons for our market to improve significantly.

On the brighter side there will continue to be homes bought and sold every day, just fewer of them and probably not for top prices as before.

If you have a house for sale in the Knoxville, Tennessee area right now and it’s been on the market over 30 days here’s some tips you can probably use. More useful home selling tips at www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com including a free copy of my 52 page eBook titled: “450 Ways To Make Your Home Sell Faster”.

Looking to buy a house in the greater Knoxville area? www.HomeCenter.com is also a great place to see all the homes, condos, land, and lots of sale. No registration required, just plug in your search criteria and start looking. Search by Maps, addresses, and areas.