Amid all the market mayhem, Nicki Baxley is in a unique position. After living in Knoxville for 17 years, Baxley and her family moved to Iowa just before the pandemic. The relocation didn t last long. In 2021, the Baxleys sold their Iowa home, bought a Knoxville house and left the Midwest.
How she got here
Baxley and her husband, Doug, moved to Knoxville together after they got married. Fast forward 17 years and their family grew by two. The family had strong ties in the city – Baxley s relatives live nearby and her sons loved their school. But in December 2019, they relocated for Doug s career . They sold the house and headed west.
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That added competition for homes, combined with low inventory and an increase in home prices, is making it more difficult and expensive to buy a house in the Knoxville area.
According to the Freddie Mac Housing Price Index, Knoxville s May home prices increased by 21.4% since May 2020 – a higher rate of increase than Chattanooga, Nashville, Tennessee and the United States.
While it s true that many new Knoxvillians are coming from outside the city and state, real estate experts say what makes the market challenging isn t out-of-town buyers it s a lack of available homes and other problems causing prices to go up.
Month after month, Knoxville home prices increase. The latest data doesn t give any indication that those increases will stop.
According to the Freddie Mac Housing Price Index, Knoxville s May home prices increased by 21.4% since May 2020 – a higher rate of increase than Chattanooga, Nashville, Tennessee and the United States.
What would it take for Knoxville s skyrocketing home prices to come back to Earth? Fundamentally, it comes down to our housing stock, Hancen Sale, governmental affairs and policy director for the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors (KAAR), told Knox News.
The National Association of Realtors reports approximately 6.8 million homes are needed to satisfy demand nationwide, and starter homes are the hardest to find.