Knox County’s median home sale price ticked down about 1% from April, according to newly released real estate deed data, even as recorded home sales across the county dropped nearly 9% compared to a year earlier. The dip sounds dramatic on its face, but a closer look at the numbers shows a housing market that’s stabilizing rather than collapsing.
Single-family homes in Knox County sold for a median price of $399,000, according to Knoxville News Sentinel, which cited realtor.com data sourced from real estate deeds. That figure was essentially unchanged from April and only slightly above the $397,163 median recorded in May 2025. Knox County recorded 746 home sales for the month, down from 819 a year earlier, a decline of 8.9%. Condominiums and townhomes told a starker story: their median sales price fell to $310,000, down 8.8% from $340,000 in May 2025 and down 6% from April’s $329,900 median. Total residential home sales across the county reached $359.9 million for the month. The newspaper noted that realtor.com’s statistics reflect a few months’ delay and exclude homes currently listed for sale, meaning the figures aren’t directly comparable to active listing data.
Statewide, the picture was mixed as well. Tennessee’s median home sale price came in at $359,036, with single-family homes selling for a median of $356,990 — up 5% from May 2025 and 2% from April’s $349,999. Tennessee condos and townhomes, meanwhile, sold for a median of $370,000, down 4.4% from a year earlier but up 4.2% from April’s $355,000. The state recorded 10,471 home sales for the month, down 8.7% from May 2025’s 11,465 sales, while total residential sales value fell to $4.9 billion from April’s $5.2 billion, a 4.5% decrease.
High-End Sales Still Strong Despite Price Dips
Even with softer median prices, luxury transactions held steady. Knox County recorded 41 single-family home sales of at least $1 million in May, along with two condo or townhome sales at that price point. Statewide, nearly 7% of Tennessee residential sales — 6.98%, to be precise — closed for $1 million or more, up slightly from 7.2% the year before. As the Knoxville News Sentinel’s reporting explains, the median sales price represents the midway point of all homes sold in a given period, offering a more accurate read on market conditions than an average price that can be skewed by a handful of high-dollar deals.
Zooming Out: A Market That’s Rebounding, Not Retreating
The monthly dip in Knox County prices looks different when placed against the region’s broader trajectory. Regional home sales across East Tennessee jumped 14.1% year-over-year in July, with the regional median sale price rising 3.3%, according to the Holli McCray Group. That rebound follows a pattern the group says began accelerating in late 2025 as pent-up buyer demand returned to the market. Greater Knoxville’s housing inventory also grew 6.5% year-over-year by July, though half of homes sold still went under contract within 20 days — a sign that increased supply hasn’t necessarily slowed the pace of deals…