Affordability and inventory may be the most talked about real estate topics, but hot spots still get a lot of attention.  

The truth of the matter is a hot spot depend on what you’re looking for. There are hot spots for total sales, price growth, and days on market. Hot spots can be month-over-month, year-to-date or year-over-year calculations. Each has strong points – some stronger than others. There’s a hot spot for every housing market metric. And the regional hot spots are different – sometimes quite a bit different – from county or community market hot spots. 

Here is the big picture.  

Most of our region is an affordability hot spot. Only one community has equal footing with the US median. Piney Flats has a year-to-date median price of $412,000 in July. The US median is $416,100.

Bristol, TN has the most affordable year-to-date price – $180,000. And Bristol VA is only $5,000 more. 

During the first seven months of this year, residential sales have retreated 20 percent from last year. The median existing single-family sales price is up 10.5 percent. It has been consistent for over a year and there was no decline so often cited in the mass media. 

In terms of sales growth rate, the region monitored by the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors® (NETAR) is among the state’s top performers. According to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Research Department Kingsport-Bristol had the sixth largest percentage price gain in the nation during the second quarter. And then there’s the Wall Street Journal – Realtor.com’® Emerging Housing Market Index. The Johnson City metro area has been at the top list of that coveted list for almost two years. Kingsport-Bristol is close behind. 

While almost all the local community markets have seen a year-to-date sales slide and prices increase this year, the month-to-month numbers ebb and flow. That’s the hyper-local nature of housing markets. Only one community market — Jonesborough — has seen a sales increase. A check of the monthly numbers shows six markets with year-over-year increases. Most were smaller communities. The region’s two largest markets – Johnson City and Kingsport – have seen hefty sales declines.  

Prices are a little easier to follow. There’s only one market – Bristol, TN – with a year-to-date decline. And monthly four communities had price declines from July last year.  

You don’t have to number wonk to keep up with the market’s ebb and flow. NETAR’s data analyst takes care of that chore. 

Each month there is a listing of the regional, county and community markets year-to-year, year-to-date sales, and prices. The July version can be found on the (NETAR) website at https://netar.us/july-2023-market-analytics/  

These reports show why buyers and sellers should avoid giving too much attention to the top-down housing analysis most mass media uses.  

The best thing buyers and sellers can do when they are scouring local markets and really want to know what’s happening is to go pro. That means partnering with a local Realtor®. He or she has the experience, access to public and private databases and the local street smarts to come up with answers that precisely and accurately fit both the market and what their clients are looking for.  

Remember the old real estate axiom that the three most important things in real estate are location, location, and location?  

It’s true, but the three most important things in real estate market information are local, local, and local.