Knoxville's first quarter performance: down 2.2% versus 14.2% loss nationally.

When is it good news that home "values" are decreasing in your area? When they are decreasing a lot more elsewhere, I suppose. According to a recent report from Zillow.com, Knoxville Tennessee home values have decreased a little over 2% in the first quarter of this year - that is compared to 14.1% nationally.

Knoxville is known as a linear market, where overall effects are less whether it's the "irrational exuberance" touted by Allen Greenspan in the 1990s when our properties were increasing by around 3%-5% annually as opposed to major market 20% jumps. Now when things are not so rosy in those other areas, Knoxville is noticing a small dip.

Anecdotally, I have noticed an increased number of contacts from people moving in-land from those areas with more cyclical markets, probably contributing to a lower price decrease in this area.

For more information on the Zillow report, check out: http://www.zillow.com/reports/RealEstateMarketReports.htm?city=KnoxvilleTN