USA Today recently published a study that proclaimed Johnson City and Kingsport the best Tennessee cities to live in. A few days later the Wall Street Journal-Realtor.com index put the Kingsport-Bristol metro area as No. 7 in the nation in its Housing Market Ranking. There was no mention of the Johnson City metro area, which is the region’s fastest growing area and has what is arguably the dominant housing market in the region.  

The Johnson City metro area was also previously consistently ranked in the top 10 by the WSJ and Realtor.com Emerging Housing Market Index. It dropped out of the coveted housing market report because it doesn’t meet the new population benchmark that limits the analysis to the nation’s 200 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).  

Although the Tri-Cities is one market by many standards, when it comes to studies based on the Census Bureaus’ MSAs, Kingsport-Bristol is often in, and Johnson City is typically out.  

Kingsport-Bristol is the 167th largest metro area with 313,025 residents. Johnson City is 221st with 213,198 residents.  

From an actual market perspective, the Tri-Cities’ two metro areas plus Greene and Johnson counties have a population of 616,157. If it was counted as a single metro area, which it used to be, it would rank as the 94th largest in the nation. But that’s not how the Census standards driven data universe is constructed. 

This comparison of the two data-driven reports is a prime example of how careful readers can add personal context to the thousands of the best and worst ranking stories that are prominent in print and on the web. Most of the data-driven reports have a paragraph that lists a methodology that’s gives readers a peak under the hood of how the what’s hot and what’s not rantings are determined. It often involves getting down in the weeds of the studies. 

For example, the USA used 16 data points for its ranking of the best places to live in Tennessee. The analysis included cities walkability score, school district ratings, number of restaurants, number of activities, number of primary care providers, county-level life expectancies, number of severe weather events, number of violent and property crimes per 1,000 residents, expected annual loss from natural hazards, the ratio of home values for single-family homes, condos and co-ops to median household incomes, typical rent for all home, percentage of renters who pay over 30% of their income on rent, Q1 2024 median annual homeowners’ insurance premiums, unemployment rates, regional price parity, percentage of population with a bachelor’s degree.  

WSJ-Realtor.com bases its index on eight indicators across two categories: real estate (60%) and economic health and quality of life (40%). Each market is ranked on a scale of 0-100 according to the category indicators and the overall index is based on the weighted sum of these rankings. The real estate category indicators are real estate demand, real estate supply, median listing price trend, property taxes, and climate risk to properties. The economic and quality of life category indicators are unemployment, wages, regional price parities, the share of foreign-born residents, small business, amenities as measures as the average number of stores per specific “everyday splurge” category (coffee, upscale/specialty grocery, home improvements, fitness per capita in area and commute time.  

Each analysis offers insights, but their worth is based on what the individual reader needs. Those looking for a place to move that isn’t in the most populous MSAs will find the WSJ-Realtor.com rankings lacking. Those trying to decide between Asheville and Johnson City, sometimes referred to as Asheville light, will have to look elsewhere than the USA report.  

The best alternative is to narrow the search to a specific area and look at local data. The Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors® (NETAR) market reports rise to that challenge. For example, NETAR produced 29 items on the June and midyear market on its website and Facebook page that sliced and diced local housing market data into charts and stories that tell the local market story in detail. The same effort is made each month. 

The real estate watchwords “location, location, location” come hand-in-hand with “local, local, local” in today’s data-driven world.