Housing Market – Expected Real Estate Trends in Asheville for 2018
Looking back at the trends from 2017, we can begin to form an idea of what is to come this year. So what does the market in Asheville NC have in store for 2018? There are always things to look at from the perspective of both buyers and sellers. So if you’re thinking about buying a new home in the Asheville area this year, consider these expected trends for 2018.
What Are the Current Housing Market Levels?
Throughout the year, Asheville has seen significant increases in housing prices along. The biggest concern within the community is affordable housing. The MLS does seem to indicate that housing prices leveled off toward the end of the year, but no one is certain what that will mean for 2018.
Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty, one of our local real estate experts, assembled this market analysis based on the MLS that can provide some in depth details about the housing market, home prices, and inventory.
What is the Average Home Sale Price?
Within the Asheville city limits, the median home price for the first three quarters of 2017 was $290,000. Prices throughout Buncombe County were comparable at $263,000. Both figures jumped significantly over the last few years.
In 2007, when the recession began, prices began to fall in the region reaching the low by 2011. Since that time, and over the 6 years, each year has seen an increase in the home sale price.
How Many Days will Homes Stay on the Market?
Because of the reduction of inventory and the increase in sale prices, the average days a home stays on the market significantly dropped over 2017. As Asheville continues to grow in popularity, the area becomes ripe for those looking to sell their homes.
During the first three quarters of 2017, the average days on the market for Asheville proper was 72 days while in Buncombe County, homes tend to sell within an average of 57 days.
What this means for buyers is that typically homes will only be on the market for a short time and that sellers are getting their asking price, or more, for the sale.
What is the Current Inventory?
An interesting notion within the Asheville community is the idea of the missing middle. There are currently plenty of luxury homes available on the market, even with a short selling time, but where are the homes for the general working class? The main concern is among the service industry workers who can’t afford to live within the city limits or sometimes even the county. They will need to move further and further out, which can lead to other potential problems such as longer commute times and significantly increased traffic. And while traffic is normal for larger cities like Atlanta, is that really what we want for Asheville?
If developers would consider more truly affordable housing projects, there could be a big shift in the home buying demographics.
What Other Factors Impact the Real Estate Market in Western North Carolina?
The primary issue in WNC, along with affordable housing, is access to jobs. Within Asheville, specifically, much of the industry is tourism related with jobs being in service or hospitality. With many of these jobs being reliant on a tipping economy, the pay can be erratic and the opportunity to buy is limited.
However, while one would believe the rental market would be robust in this economy, there are other factors at play. Most notably that Asheville remains a tourist town which means some of the housing inventory is being purchased to use as short term vacation rentals, in spite of local regulations in some cases. This changes the make-up of Asheville neighborhoods and pushes lower income residents further and further from the city limits.
The team at GoPrime Mortgage, Inc. . can help today. Contact us to see how you can start the process of buying your own home in Asheville in 2018.
