SMOKIES REPORT: Demand 2025 numbers

[Collin Hays]

Most of the listings I see on MLS in the Smokies are still bragging about 2024 rental numbers. The properties are then priced at a multiple of the 2024 rents. Why are they not mentioning 2025 numbers? Because 2025 stunk.  I visited with Darlene Derosia yesterday.  She's one of the most knowledgeable realtors in the Smokies, working there for over 25 years.  

Darlene:  "EVERYONE was down in 2025.  It was a bad year."

So, if you are looking at properties in the Smokies, it is great the sellers are sharing with you what the annual rents are.  But what they were in 2024 is irrelevant.  Get the 2025 numbers and then apply a multiple to that.  

Cheers!

[JD Martin]

I read in my local paper that visitation for 2025 was down 700k visitors. That's a pretty hefty drop off and a lot of nights not booked. I'd also be curious how many visitors were "one and dones" and didn't generate much at all in the way of nightly stay income. People like me, for example, can spend the day in Gatlinburg and be home sleeping in my own bed comfortably. That obviously doesn't work for someone coming from Atlanta or Nashville but I know our (my family) day trips into PFSG have fallen way off the last few years.