A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking to the Elizabethton Kiwanis Club. It’s a fairly common request because people are interested in what the housing market is doing. Since Realtors® are the source for most of that knowledge, they are sought-after speakers. 

During the discussion I was asked one of those 800-pound gorilla in the room questions. Some Kiwanians wanted to know the ages of the newcomers who have been flocking to the region.  

I had to admit I didn’t have a quick, precise answer, but promised to try to help shed some light on it.  

Here it goes. 

There’s a lot of newcomer information out there. Most is anecdotal, but anecdotes are not data and often misleading if you try to apply them to the big picture. For example, most of the new residents are not New Yorkers or Californians. Most are from the South. Think Florida and North Carolina. A large number are from right here in Tennessee.  

The truth of the matter is a generalized explanation is about all that’s readily available, so it’s easy to misread what’s happening.  

Census number crunchers and data-mining firms can get closer to more precise information. Unfortunately, much of it isn’t available for rural metro areas like ours. At least not yet. 

Still, if you don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good, there’s some information that offers context to what’s happening. For example, it may surprise some that our new neighbors are younger than many first though. 

At one time, it was almost accepted that most of the new residents were retirees. What we now know is some are, but many are not. The latest census data and some pretty solid data about Washington County’s new residents puts a younger face on the trend. The average age for last year’s Washington County’s newcomers was 48 years old. Yes, that’s only information from one county and even though it’s rare because it includes an age, it only reflects those making a BrightRidge connection.  

And no, it isn’t skewed by ETSU students.  

Good to know, but it doesn’t tell us how many people are in those households, or their ages – just the person who signed up.  

Kingsport collects some pretty good information, too – but age is not included. 

We also know how many folks are moving here. We know most of them settle in Washington and Sullivan counties. We also know some of the surrounding counties – like Hawkins and Johnson – have the highest growth rates, and that Carter County’s population is rising.  

We even have pretty good accounts about why they selected NE TN. Some of it is from the work-from-anywhere crowd. Low taxes are often talked about, but the number one reason seems to be they moved here for lifestyle reasons. The IRS even shows us the difference in income of the newcomers vs. the locals who pick up and moved away. They’ve increased the average household income numbers in several towns. 

Later this month, we’ll get another update. The first wave of numbers will be about net migration. That’s simply the new population number after subtracting those who have moved away and those who died from the new residents and births. It’s an important because NE Tenn. has a higher death rate than birth rate. That means attracting new residents is the only way to sustain or grow the population. 



Trust me when I say Realtors® are just as interested in the details about who’s moving here as other locals. There are efforts to improve the quality of that information. The more detailed, the better and the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors® will make it available on our website and on social media. One reason it hasn’t reached a better level is until now it wasn’t a big deal.  

Look for the details and a broader knowledge about our new neighbors because the changing demographics are a big deal.