New data suggests the housing market is slowly making a recovery.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, construction on single-family homes went up 3.2 percent in May, contributing to a third straight monthly increase.
East Tennessee homeowners and builders are also seeing a stronger market.
Earlier this month, the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) listed Knoxville among 80 U.S. housing markets showing measurable and sustained improvement.
The index measures three sets of independent monthly data to get a mark on the top improving Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
Those include: employment growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, house price appreciation from Freddie Mac and single-family housing permit growth from the U.S. Census Bureau.
A metropolitan area must see improvement in all three areas for at least six months following their respective troughs before being included on the improving markets list.
East Tennessee home builder Blane Chrisman, of Radius Homes, says he and other builders are working quickly to keep up with demand.
"It's finally good to see people building again, and they're calling us back again, and they're asking for our opinions and how do we do this," he said.
Chrisman is building several homes in Blount County, including those in the Lowes Ferry Subdivision. He says many homeowners want to build in East Tennessee for the market stability.
"Knoxville has been very stable throughout the years," Chrisman explained.
"Even in the high times, we didn't grow exponentially. We grew three to four percent when the rest of the country was growing at 20 percent. And during the crashes, we didn't drop but three percent. So we've been relatively stable mainly because of where we're located."
He sees potential for future stability, too.
"We're going to take it one day at a time," he said. "Every little bit we can get."