Quote of the Day

"Immediately it's like getting cut...It's sharp and drastic and it's very painful, but in the big picture, it's like surgery. In the long run, you're better off."

- Dale Akins, president of Knoxville research firm The Market Edge, talking about data his company recently released showing a massive drop in Knox County residential building permits in Q1.

Read the full article here.

Of Builders and Baristas

While the weekly poll is showing that most of you think I should go work at Starbucks to offset my rising gas costs, I'm thinking out of work East Tennessee builders might have already filled all the vacant positions. Via Property Scope:

The Knoxville research firm [The Market Edge] recently issued its 1Q numbers for residential building permits, and the comparison with the first quarter of 2007 is grim:

Knox County -- down 58 percent
Loudon County -- down 21 percent
Anderson County -- down 63 percent
Blount County -- down 48 percent
Sevier County -- down 40 percent.

Don't eat all the biscotti before I get there, boys.

Jan Nielsen's Mad...

...and he's not gonna take it anymore! Mr. Nielsen is a local builder, who, according to the Knoxville MLS, currently has 5 homes for sale in Saddle Ridge in Farragut. I got a mass email sent out by Jan the Builder today and he's not happy about what the media is saying about home prices:

"I am sending this message out of frustration with articles in the media telling us that home prices are down and going further down. Nothing could be further from the truth here in Knoxville.The News- Sentinel, and other media, report prices DOWN over 8% for 2007, but this is based on the Case-Schiller index which measures only the 20 largest metropolitan areas.On the contrary, the OFHEO, which is HUD's office measuring same house sales across the nation, reports that Knoxville had an average appreciation rate of 5.8% UP for 2007.Furthermore, Tennessee was UP (4.1%), our East South Central region was up (4.1%), and the nation was up (0.8%) for all transactions (includes appraisals for refinancing.) You would never guess that 2 out of 3 states reported positive appreciation rates in 2007.You can check this yourselves by visiting ofheo.gov. I bring it to your attention because everyone should know that prices are continuing to go up, not down, in Knoxville."

OFHEO, for the uninitiated, is the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. When I actually have time to breathe, I'm going to check out Mr. Nielsen's numbers.

I did have time to check out the House Price Calculator located on their website. According to this nifty tool, my home, which I bought 2nd quarter '06, had a little more than 8% appreciation by 4th quarter '08. I'll take it!