Developer Bahman Kasraei announced plans for a 45 unit assisted living facility at the historic Old South High School property he recently purchased at auction from Knox County, which had let the property deteriorate and at one point had planned to demolish it.

FLASHBACK: A couple of photos from the Rocket '69 yearbook...

Michael Silence quotes a real estate blog re. an encouraging bump in sales for May.

Knoxville is lucky to have a fairly stable real estate market, owing, I think, to the abundance of stable government and government related jobs in the area.

Over here in Blount Co., there are about eight houses for sale in our neighborhood, and some of them have been on the market for a while. One is an upper-end spec house, and they just reduced the price drastically. On the upside, it seems to have generated a lot of interest and it won't surprise me if it sells soon at the new price, which some might consider a bargain considering the upgrades. The market appears to be soft for homes in that price range, though, probably because of tighter mortgage qualifying, a slight uptick in interest rates (even though they are still historically low), and fear of ARMs.

Interesting and varying accounts of a controversial Realtor's Association meeting in the KNS.

In his presentation on land use planning and sustainable development this week, Ed McMahon mentioned a couple of interesting programs you may not be aware of (I wasn't).

One is a farmland preservation program, funded by the farm bill. It looks like he is talking about the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, one of several environmental and conservation measures in the farm bill. FRPP will provide up to $280 million per year for preserving farm land. Here's a summary:

• FRPP provides matching funds (up to 50 percent of the fair market easement value) to help State, tribal, or local governments and non-governmental organizations purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranchland in agricultural uses.

• Participating landowners agree not to convert their land to non-agricultural uses and to develop and implement a conservation plan for any highly erodible land. Landowners retain rights to use the property for agriculture uses.

The catch is that it provides matching funds, so there must be a state farmland preservation program in place. I believe Mr. McMahon said that Tennessee does not currently have such a program, so it might be something worth looking at in the next legislative session.

Another program Mr. McMahon mentioned in a discussion about affordable housing is the Location Efficient Mortgage program. This is a mortgage loan that promotes living in "neighborhoods where residents can walk from their homes to stores, schools, recreation, and public transportation."

The fixed rate 15 or 30 year Location Efficient Mortgage recognizes the cost savings from not needing an auto as additional income for purposes of loan qualifying, meaning that a borrower who may not qualify for a conventional mortgage can qualify for a LEM, or can qualify for a larger loan. The goals of the program are to:

• Increase home purchases in a variety of location efficient communities

• Boost public transit ridership

• Support neighborhood consumer services and cultural amenities;

• Reduce energy consumption

• Improve local and regional air quality

At present, it is only available under a pilot program in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It was developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Transit Administration, the EPA, and several charitable foundations. Fannie Mae administers the program.

Mr. McMahon noted an interesting fact: The amount spent for a typical auto purchase will service an additional $100,000 on a mortgage loan.

Friday's edition of the Knoxville News Sentinel had an insert called "Condo & Loft Living." The fine print at the top of the front page says "Advertising supplement to the Knoxville News Sentinel." Subsequent pages just say "Knoxville News Sentinel, Friday, August 17, 2007."

On page six, there's a feature article on "Lakeside Village", with the subhead "Look and feel of Norman Rockwell painting." It's accompanied by a photo of some elegant Charleston/Savannah style townhouses. The byline is by "Rhonda Robinson, Special publications correspondent."

The KNS does not have the "Condo & Loft Living" insert online, but you can see a fuzzy, cropped rendering of the photo that appeared in the KNS "special correspondent's" feature at Lakeside Village's website.

It looks pretty nice. Nice enough that the Mrs. wanted to drive down there and see them. But apparently "special correspondent" (fax transcriber?) Rhonda Robinson never went down there to actually see them for herself.

Here's what they really look like...

Or is it just Bush Administrations? Coincidental, I'm sure.

The current slump (Ed. note: Bush Jr.) in housing is the worst since the 1989-92 downturn (Ed. note: Bush Sr).

The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 0.3 percent to 5.99 million units in May, the slowest sales pace since June of 2003.

The median price of a home sold last month dropped to $223,700, down 2.1 percent from a year ago. It marked the 10th straight price decline compared with a year ago, the longest stretch of weakness on record.

The largest decline in sales is in the South (3.4%). Are Southerners more financially conservative? Or, is the South over built in expectation of Northerners moving south? Or?

Item. A century of American home prices plotted as a roller coaster ride.

Item. An excellent discussion of the subprime mortgage crisis and what it means for the wider economy (3/27 hour one).

Item. New Century Financial pushes up daisies, faces probe.

Item. John Voight discusses chocolate-covered cotton with a naked Alan Arkin in a tree.

Stacey X has introduced a series of interesting bills regarding housing and real estate.

HB983 (PDF format) completely redefines "blight" and severely narrows the current definition. The change eliminates "dilapidation, obsolescence, overcrowding, lack of ventilation, light and sanitary facilities, deleterious land use, or any combination of these or other factors, [that] are detrimental to the safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community" as elements of blight. It also specifically excludes loss of property value to surrounding properties as an element of blight, and restricts "blighted areas" to a single parcel.

HB1649 (PDF format) would limit damages for improper variances from zoning or building codes to the local government that approved them. Developers would be held harmless and could not be named as a defendants.

HB778 (PDF format) prohibits a local government from condemning blighted property and transferring it to another private entity. Instead, it allows only repair or demolition, with the property owner being charged for the costs by way of a tax lien. And if I read it correctly, the owner of the blighted property would have two years to get their condemned property back. (The bill appears to have a defect, though. It defines "economic development" as a legal term for the purposes of the statute, but the term is never used or referenced in the text of the statute.)

The MPC has released a draft of the Chapman Highway Corridor Study. You can access from the MPC website.

Interesting looking plan with many nice features. Hope I'm still around to see it implemented!

I stopped by the Greek Deli at the Chapman Highway Chevron and ordered the Gyro which was quite good with a refreshing sour cream(?) sauce. I got a free sample of Al-Hubh sauce thinking this might be good to take to a party as a dip but anyone who came near would get garlic breath not to mention the poppyseeds might get your drug tested pals thrown off the job. The service was cheerful but a bit slow as a family of former Katrina evacuees on their way to Pennsylvania from Texas had arrived right before me. Usually you get pretty quick service. Pretty good baklava, too.

Now that I’ve gotten your attention, shall we discuss the urban renewal that’s threatening this place of business? I asked the owner where she would go if the city took the deli for a park and she said “I’ll answer that when the city really does take this for a park… meanwhile I’ve got enough things to worry about” and “this building’s been here 60 years, it’s not going anywhere”. Now I’m confused. I thought denial was a river in Egypt, what’s it doing in a Greek Deli? More likely she was so busy with the store she didn’t read the paper.

Now the city is all set to advertise an urban redevelopment zone. The city says they’re going to protect the neighborhoods but haven’t quite gotten around to giving out any legal language to that effect. There’s not even a pretense they’ll protect the businesses on Chapman Highway. My heart won’t break if the muffler place moves a little farther out but a convenience store/deli is a real asset to the neighborhood. Can this kind of place afford the rent in a brand new condo tower?

Is there anyone out there that can help us with relocating? We're a married couple looking for a vibrant area that's safe for us and our pets. I've gotten so many various accounts from landlords, but I wanted the skinny on where to live. My husband and I need to be close to UT for school and work, and we're used to a very bike friendly community. We're in a college rental now at the heart of Colorado State's campus neighborhood, so we're pretty insensitive to parties and noise. I didn't see any good message boards any other places and it seems likes nobody in Knoxville uses Craigslist, so I apologize if this is an inappropriate forum. You can email me at mgshearin@hotmail.com if you have any helpful hints (or places to live!) or please start a discussion here.

When we had AC problems last week we called a number of places and decided on A&L Heat and Air - (865) 681-8797. A (Aaron) responded to the call. Super nice guy. He found the problem and had it fixed in 20 minutes. He charged us the minimum service call fee of sixty dollars, which was half of what some of the other places we called charged. Highly recommended.

- Broadway Plumbing in Maryville
- Need Bobcat and Dump Truck Work Done in Blount County, TN?
- UT Wildlife Rehabilitation
- Agape Electric in Maryville

Matt Edens, meet Lindsay Ferrier. (By way of Nashville is Talking.)

Blount Co. reappraised property values this year. Property owners recently received notice of reappraisals. If you are a property owner in Blount Co. or any other Tennessee county that was reappraised this year, you should check your reappraisal notice carefully.

Ours seemed out of whack, so we ran some comps to confirm and went down to the temporary appraiser's review office at Midland Shopping Center to discuss it. We came armed with a lot of paperwork. The guy who helped us said "Y'all know more than you are supposed to. We like that. Helps us catch mistakes."

We were lucky, and just happened to get the appraiser who appraised our house. He noticed right away that there was indeed a mistake (a "keypunch error" he called it), said it was his error and he was sorry, and that he'd fix it and we'd get a corrected notice in a few weeks.

He told us that the Blount Co. average appraisal was up about 30% since the last county-wide appraisal in 2001. Some neighborhoods and areas will be lower or higher depending on market conditions, etc. But if your reappraisal went up significantly more than that, you might want to go talk to them about it.

They are human and they do make mistakes. (We thought it was because we were the only Democrats on our street.) They are also quite reasonable, and most helpful.

The City of Alcoa, in cooperation with Maryville, Blount County, and Knox County, has announced a major new R&D office park/retail/residential development on Maryville Pike (Or Old Knoxville Highway if you're in Maryville) at its intersection with the I-140/Pellissippi Parkway.

(He never got back to me to answer my question about it, but I guess this is why State Sen. Raymond Finney introduced legislation to remove the 35 foot building height restrictions along Pellissippi Parkway within the city limits of Alcoa.)

The project was mentioned in the paper last week, but no details were given. We were talking with Blount Co. mayor candidate Joe Gallagher about it last Saturday, and he said he didn't know anything about it, either. He also said that he had attended a planning commission meeting just a couple of days before and there was no mention of it.

Anyway, this seems like a pretty big deal, and actually could be a Good Thing for Blount County and the metro area in general. I don't know why they need to be so secretive about it.

One interesting aspect is that Knox Co. will invest in the development and share in the property tax revenues.

Hopefully it will be as described, and not turn out to be Turkey Creek South. It sounds similar to how Heathrow, FL developed into a world-class technology/office park and a brand spanking new town center with retail and condos. It's pretty nice except for being a little sterile and Stepford-like.

But given our area's past history, somebody will probably figure out a way to screw it up, and either way the developers will make a lot of money, some of it courtesy of taxpayers.

It was announced today (in the Knoxville News Sentinel) the Cityview at Riverwalk condos will break ground in April, 2006 and be completed in the Summer of 2007. Isn't that amazing? 122 residences built in just over the amount of time it takes to build a single-family home.

I saw these condos advertised on Realtor.com several weeks ago. One example is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,335 square foot condo for $304,900. $228 per square foot, not bad I suppose, I have never really priced condos, here or anywhere.

However, if I were inclined to live in a condo and had the money, or willing to spend it, I might choose a condo at The Gazebo At Waterford Cove, also in South Knoxville. The "cove" is formerly known as Maxeys Boat Dock whereas the Cityview at Riverwalk is formerly known as "the glove factory". I do love marketing. One example at The Gazebo is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 3,643 square foot condo for $699,500. $192 per square foot. 

I believe the developers of The Gazebo only paid $2 million for the land in 2003. I do wish I had the forsight and friends/contacts to get together and buy this type of land.  I believe I would have put single family homes instead of condos and still come out ahead. Woe is me.

 

Spotted in the NYT by the Mrs., here's a cool new real estate website:

http://zillow.com/

They provide sales history, property and tax info, and a "Zestimated" property value based on comps, and more. They say they have data on over 60 million properties.

I looked up the house we owned in Florida, and according to the "Zestimator" it has appreciated 85% in a little over five years since we sold it. The house we owned in South Knoxville has appreciated 73% in eleven years.

The "My Zestimator" feature lets you refine the "Zestimate" by correcting existing data, adding your own data about improvements or other features, and selecting different comps.

And the best part is that it's free, there's no registration, and it doesn't require any personal/contact info. Not sure how long that can/will last, but it's pretty nice.