As the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaches, the Tri-Cities’ real estate market continues to outpace last year’s performance. The supply of available homes in Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, and the surrounding region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia dropped to its lowest point in recent history: 2.2 months. Normally, a healthy market would have at least five to six months of available inventory of homes. This has directly affected the amount of time homes are staying on the market. Some cities, like Bristol, TN, went from being on the market for roughly three months to going from listing to close in only 49 days. Every major city, with the exception of Bristol, VA, saw a dramatic decrease in time on market in October. Home selling prices also significantly increased year-over-year. Mostly notably were Bristol, VA and Johnson City, TN, where prices increased by $93,622 and $43,975 respectively. Historically, October usually signals when the real estate market begins to slow down. As people prepare for the holiday season, their focus switches from buying and selling real estate to staying in and being with family. However, 2020 has not been a typical year and the real estate market continues to show no sign of slowing down.
