Sevier County Housing Summit
On Mar. 11 elected officials from city and town governments in Sevier County, along with mortgage lenders, commercial real estate developers, residential developers, planning commissions, and planners presented their perspective on the current housing conditions in the county.
A lack of affordable housing, along with a lack of housing overall, were two of the topics discussed along with being more prepared for commercial businesses. One individual compared the current housing market to the toilet paper frenzy of 2020, with the high demand leading to high prices.
From Nov. of 2019 to Nov. of 2020 the average sales price of homes in the county jumped from $155,072 to $283,643, an increase of 82.9%. This price rise was attributed to less homes being for sale as more and more people have been moving away from cities to come to smaller communities causing a 61% decrease in the number of homes for sale.