Asheville has been hit by the real estate slow down, however it has happend  a litte later than the rest of the coutnry.   Nearly one third of property purchases in Buncombe county are by out of state buyers.  For many, they can't buy until they sell their property in Florida, or Arizona or California. 

Property values have declined among many of the higher end homes, however overall the market continues to appreciate - albiet much slower than in previous years.  That can spell good news for you if you are looking to build, as construction is having a hard time as well.

Follow the link below for specific asheville demographics.  And good luck.  Asheville is a great place to live.

http://www.ashevillechamber.org/economicdevelopment/demographics.asp

Best wishes,

David Bonyun,

Homesonfilm.com

Thanks for responding, David. Your insight and comments are very helpful and truly appreciated! I will check out the Asheville Chamber website you provided me for more info.

Regards,

Don Apelian

This may give some insight to ponder.....

According to the MLS where these lots you mentioned are listed, there are 47 lots for sale. They have been in the MLS for over 400 days and there are no recorded sales of any of these lots for the agent that has them listed.

The cheapest lot they have is $127K for 6/10ths of an acre. I have a beautiful 6.36 acre tract for just over $200k that has beautiful views and room to roam where you won't hear your neighbor's toilet flush. It just happens to be on the other end of Buncombe County in Leicester.

There are over 2400 parcels of land for sale in Buncombe County and we are only selling an average of about 30 per month.

Gerton is MOSTLY an out-of-state market for buyers and they have dramatically slowed. It is sought after for summer homes, for the most part, because of how far away it is from the center of activity.

Currently, the average asking price for homes in Buncombe County is $472,000.

The cost of building, especially "green" is fairly expensive in Asheville compared to other parts of the state. Demand is still strong, but the buyers cannot buy until, as the above comment indicated, they sell something somewhere else.

For more statistics go to:

Asheville, Buncombe County, NC: Residential Active Listings Statistics - August 2008

For more info about the Asheville area, take a look deeper into my blog here on AR and you will find a post about land sales/values.

Thanks for taking the time to do this research and respond, Don! I have spoken with a couple of developers in the area that have said that sales of new lots and construction have slowed considerably.

Lot prices seem to be all over the place and it is very confusing to determine how some of these developers arrive at their figures.

We obviously need to do some more due diligence before committing to a specific area, but I do like north Buncombe County. My wife's parents live in Weaverville (Reams Creek), and they seem to enjoy that area quite a bit. I believe the lot you have in Liecester is just NW of them if I am not mistaken. Are you able to send me any more info about this property?

Thank you again! 

Reems Creek and Weaverville are nice areas.

We can be in Weaverville in about 15-18 minutes from this property, and not a lot of traffic. We are NW Buncombe. Fairview is SE. Fairview is very expensive compared to Leicester because Leicester has not started to break up as many farms and is still being discovered. Once they widened Mine Hole Gap into Fairview things went crazy. I used to live on Emmas Grove Rd. in Fairview and moved out to Leicester because of all the traffic.

Weaverville is starting to go through the same growth pains now that I26 is going past it.

Here is a link to the listing: http://www.wncrmls.com/wnc/maildoc/b000cg9661.html

Here is a post about it and some other things to consider when buying land here: Land outside the City of Asheville, NC- If you don't like the sweet aroma of manure and the site of mobile homes, then get ready to pay more!

Don

Don

Here is a better link with more pics : http://www.wncrmls.com/wnc/maildoc/b0000a4912.html