Why More East Tennessee Buyers Are Keeping Their Home Inspection in 2026

For the past few years, a home inspection contingency felt like a luxury a lot of buyers couldn't afford to keep. In a market where houses were getting five, ten, sometimes twenty offers, waiving the inspection was often the price of admission just to get a seller to look at your offer twice.

That's changing — fast.

Buyers Are Waiving Fewer Inspections Than They Were a Year Ago

According to the National Association of Realtors, only 17% of home buyers nationally waived their inspection contingency this year, down from 25% just twelve months earlier. That's an eight-point swing in one year — and it's not a fluke.

Two things are driving it. First, there's simply more to choose from: national housing inventory climbed to a 4.9-month supply in August 2026, the highest level in over a decade. Second, with more homes on the market and fewer bidding wars, buyers aren't feeling the same pressure to strip out their protections just to compete. NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun put it plainly: the extra supply is "giving homebuyers better opportunities to negotiate."

What That Looks Like Here in East Tennessee

We're seeing the same shift play out closer to home. East Tennessee's housing supply sat at roughly five months by the end of 2025 — a big jump from the tight, under-two-month markets buyers were fighting through a few years ago. The median sale price across the region rose a modest 2.6% in 2025 to $374,500, with another 3.1% increase forecast for 2026 — steady growth, not the kind of frantic price jumps that used to scare buyers into waiving everything to win.

It's not uniform across every price point, though. Real estate watchers describe it as a "K-shaped" market: higher-end homes still have plenty of inventory and generally favor sellers, while more affordable homes are still moving fast, with real competition for the right property. If you're shopping that lower price range in Campbell, Anderson, Union, Knox, Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hamblen, or Jefferson County, you may still feel some of that old pressure — but it's easing, and you have more room than you did a year ago to ask for what protects you.

Why Keeping the Inspection Still Matters — Maybe More Than Ever

A more balanced market doesn't mean fewer surprises hiding behind drywall. Foundation movement, aging HVAC systems, moisture in a crawlspace, electrical work that was never brought up to code — none of that goes away just because the market softened. If anything, a calmer market is exactly the moment to slow down and actually use the leverage you finally have.

An inspection isn't about killing a deal. It's about knowing exactly what you're buying, and walking into closing with real numbers instead of assumptions — whether that's negotiating a repair credit, asking the seller to fix something before closing, or simply deciding a property isn't the right fit after all.

What a Kinetic Inspection Covers

As a veteran-owned, InterNACHI Certified Professional Inspector (TN License #3187) serving Campbell, Anderson, Union, Knox, Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hamblen, and Jefferson counties, we go through a home the way we'd want it done for our own family — roof to foundation, systems and structure, with a straightforward report you can actually use in your negotiation.

If you're buying — or thinking about buying — anywhere in East Tennessee this fall, don't skip this step just because the market's calmer. Schedule your inspection with Kinetic Home Inspections today, and go into closing knowing exactly what you're getting.