Mahoney Knows Homes: How Bear Activity Can Affect Home Value

As we all know, Kingston Springs made headlines this week with multiple accounts of Black Bear sightings from residents. These reports were coming from all over the Ranchettes, with many locals sharing photos and videos of their encounters. Not only was the presence of the bear seen by the locals, it was FELT by local business owners. According to Facebook, these entrepreneurial bears took the town by storm and infiltrated almost every industry, threatening small businesses.

Most of the time when you think of bears interacting with humans, they are raiding a campsite or dumpster diving. Apparently these are not your every day, run of the mill Gatlinburg bears - these guys meant BUSINESS!

Within 24 hours, there was photo evidence of eyewitness accounts posted on HIP KS of bear-owned businesses ranging from t-shirt sales to operating drones, and almost everything in between – I even saw one was a realtor. GET OUT OF HERE BEAR!

So how does a bear sighting affect our home values? It doesn’t.

As for home values, buyers still seem to prefer good schools, a reasonable commute, and a nice backyard over proximity to entrepreneurial wildlife. The good news is that, to date, there have been no reports of bears making cash offers over asking price. I did leave a trail of honey headed toward Pegram just to be safe, though.