JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Just as the weather is heating up in Northeast Tennessee, realtors say the housing market is showing no sign of cooling down.
“It’s been wild for almost two years now,” Realtor Karissa Winstead said. “I just keep seeing and just keep thinking it’s going to maybe slow down and get easier for buyers, but it’s still just as crazy as it has been.”
Former Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors President Kristi Bailey said home buyers are not only dealing with inflated prices, but also very, very short supply.
“In Kingsport there are about 44 houses on the market,” Bailey said. “Johnson City, 46, in Bristol there are 40. So that’s the reason the market is so tight.”
The home Bailey was showing her client Sunday just hit the market a day before.
“We have looked at several houses already,” Bailey said. “The thing is we’re always competing.”
Meanwhile, a couple of homes in the Tri-Cities were holding open houses this weekend. Since houses selling in one day has become the new normal, open houses aren’t something that happens too often anymore.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have this one stay on the market just long enough to host an event like this,” Realtor Raven Tapp said.
Meanwhile, buyers are dealing with the frustration of finding the perfect home.
“It moves quick, if it’s a good looking house in the right place it’s gone in about just a few hours,” Brian Bansemer, potential home buyer, said.
Bansemer is a Bristol native who is moving back to the area from Pittsburgh. He’s been looking for a house since the end of January.
“You’re rushed a little bit,” Bansemer said. “I mean if it’s something you really want you’ve got to go and you can’t wait because five minutes will go, somebody else just looked at it, and they’re already writing the offer on it.”
No matter who you ask, they’ll tell you the market is still hot and not slowing down any time soon.
“In the springtime definitely a lot of people you know come out of the winter blues and want to move on to bigger, better, things,” Tapp said.
