Realtor - Josh Taylor, RE/MAX, Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City,TN, VA, TriCitiesAgent.com

This area has been sheltered from the national real estate crunch.

DAMASCUS, Va. – To understand why property values continue to increase here despite doom and gloom in the national real estate market, you have to ask the folks who are buying.

“Living here’s like living in Mayberry,” said Tammy Ginn, who recently bought a house with her husband, Larry, and likens the feel of this small Washington County town to the idyllic setting of the classic 1960s sitcom, “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“We’re just like part of the family,” her husband said of the neighborhood where they bought a three-story Victorian for $180,000. The house with two turrets would easily cost $450,000 back in Hampton Roads, Va., he said.

“It’s a different lifestyle and a different quality of people,” Larry Ginn said. “I feel more a part of that community than the one I spent 30 years making a career living in and growing up.”

It’s a sentiment echoed throughout Washington County, where a steady stream of new residents are helping to drive prices up even amid the current recession.

Between August and December, as the national credit crunch worsened, Washington County saw 415 real estate transactions, and Commissioner of Revenue David Henry said many of those properties – such as the Ginns’ home – sold for much more than their assessed values.