Angie, (fair warning, outsider, grin) is the new investment from outsiders able to be beneficial to you locals in the area, or is it just overwhelming the original, local character?

I actually like the jackasses answers. The people who are crunching numbers at you are the Wizard of Oz....the little man behind the curtain; pretending to know what they don't. But I do know this. I have lived here my entire life, and since I was very young, things that once had absolutely NO value are now worth thousands and even millions of dollars... It has many of the old-timers saying "I wish I would have bought that {or kept that} and sold it now". Houses that sold for a say 40,000 a decade ago are going for over $100,000 in some areas today because of the sudden population boom! And that's no lie and no number crunching. Who knows, as the Eagles song goes "if it all fell to pieces tomorrow" it would still be my region! Corkscrew the outside investors that are just driving up the prices to the point where no one can afford anything anymore!

Gina, Great answer. Just to add one other snippet of insight, with the Baby Boomer Generation being a dominant changing market segment, they are projected to want to settle, retire, have second homes in college oriented towns and resort areas. With ETSU and the mountains, you have two strong attracters working for your area.

Thank you Sree for your question.
Although it is difficult to give a firm answer on exacts, we can look at past performance to get some ideas on how our properties have historically performed and gain some insight as to patterns.
So far in Johnson City in 2008 through 6/11/2008 there has been 283 homes sold with an average sales price of $186,281.
In 2007 735 homes sold with an average sales price of $192,884.
In 2006 828 homes sold with an average sales price of $189,641.
In 2005 819 homes sold with an average sale price of $181,512.
In 2004 there were 839 homes sold with an average sales price of $161, 844.
In 2003 there were 738 homes sold with an average sales price of $157,236.
(These are listed home from the Tenn Va MLS system)
This shows that we have a consistent gain of between 3 and 5% per year in our market. A very steady move upwards.

I would feel comfortable in saying that I would expect that trend to continue for the next few years. And when the market opens back up in Florida, we will see another large gain in our market with people who want to move in to our area and haven't been able to sell their homes.

I love when jackasses answer questions, when they have no valid input, just so they can boost their posts levels. These morons could have looked at the same data I did to give you an accurate representation.

Historically (previous 4 years), Johnson City seems to steadily be climbing. The recent problems in the real estate market have had little effect on housing prices in Johnson City. Being the "jewel" of the entire northeast TN region will certainly help with continuing to draw new residents.

The first answer is not far off; there is no way to tell 100% what the future will hold for any city. However, you can go back and look at that city's track record. How did it do last yr? The last 3 yrs? The last 5 yrs? What major economic factors will influence the city this coming yr? The next yr? Is WalMart moving to town? Is WalMart moving out of town? Is there an auto manufacture coming to town? Is there a by-pass coming through? What new residential or commerical developments are taking place? Try attending a few city council meetings or planning and zoning meetings; you'll catch on quick as to what might influence appreciation or depreciation in your area real soon. You don't have to have a crystal ball, you just have to play ball!

Let me get out my crystal ball. Really there’s no one that can tell you this. No one can predict growth rates accurately, plus there are so many variables. What will interest rates be? What will inflation be? Where will you be? Will you be in good health? Will the company you work for still be in business? What will the crime rate be? Your guess is as good as any.