JennyJJJ

I've been looking and wondering why the inventory is soooo high in Asheville and the surrounding areas?? Any one have any ideas. It is such a beautiful area. I'm surprised at the number of people who are moving out???? Why are they leaving?

Thanks

degas

What websites are you using to see all these sales?

A_Traveller

People put houses up for sale and/or leave areas for many reasons: Death in the family, job transfers, divorce, loss of employment, to trade up or down, downsizing, etc.

In case you hadn't heard theres a big slowdown in the housing market with inventories of new and pre-owned at the highest levels in almost forever. Add to that the slowdown in mortgage lending it's no wonder there are lots of houses on the market in Ashville but the situation is the same in other parts of the country - houses are not seeling a quickly as they did 18 months ago. It just the current condition of the housing market.

JennyJJJ

I'm looking at FSBO, Zillow, Craigs, Realtor.com,etc. Just a bunch. It jsut seems like they have a huge inventory. Not sales, houses "For Sale".

A Traveler~ I am very aware of the slowdown in housing. I have a house for sale as we speak. So I am very aware. Unless a person lives under a rock, they have to know.

I just wondered if it was speculators like in NV, Fl or AZ that has caused the surplus in inventory or just the general down swing in the housing.

NC is by far the nicest area I have seen so I was just suprised that people weren't jumping on these houses that are listed.

Thanks for the info.

Cassandra

IMHO, Asheville was overbuilding for a while, even when everyone was warning about the impending burst of the bubble. Also, remember that Asheville does considerable tourist business (although as yet, Fodors doesn't seem to recognize that), and since it's end-of-school-year, a lot of people were putting their houses on the market to catch the attention of visitors heading to the mountains to avoid the heat. Unfortunately for them, Asheville is having the same record-breaking heat the rest of the state is, just a few degrees cooler.

travelhappyfamily

Unfortunately, just like nearly every other place in the US, beautiful NC isn't immune to the housing woes. Many people have second homes or rental property in NC - so you may be seeing some of those being "sold off.

WannabeinaMontserrat

I also imagine that many of the properties you see are rentals or vacation cabins. That may actually bring the pricing in that area back down to where it probably should be.

travel_chic65

Perhaps rising gas prices and mortgages?

NeoPatrick

If you aren't aware there is a huge inventory of homes on the market in real estate nationwide right now due to the economy. And where are there the most homes for sale? Wherever there has been the biggest housing boom in the past 10 years. So perhaps this simply reflects that Asheville has been in a particular "boom" for the past 10 years or so.

Cassandra

On the nose, Patrick.

Asheville_Traveler

also keep in mind a lot of people in asheville buy, renovate, and turn over. part of the reason housing prices in asheville skyrocketed in the last 5-10 years. some people also get into the asheville market from other places by buying more affordable, smaller homes to start with and after a couple of years 'turn over' to move into a bigger house. now a lot of people are stuck because they are trying to get the profit they could have gotten 2 years ago, but the market has slowed down and these houses aren't 'priced to sell' - a lot of homes have been on the market for months, even a year, because no one wants to lower the price.

JJ5

What Patrick said.

It's even worse in high or middle spectrum house sales in formerly high demand vacation areas of recent decades- within states that have dismal economics, despite glorious national resources- like Michigan.

It's the time to buy bargains. It's to the point where former high/high scale lake waterfront people are moving up too, leaving stupendous bargains behind. But then again, there are abundance of these places for sale, inventory is huge.

As is glorious hill land in wine country. We have seen decent with some high end features homes with 1600 plus sq. living space- 2 or 3 outbuildings and 4 to 10 acres going for under $60,000. And I have never see that in my life before- not where it is.

Depressed state location, combined with house cycle equals stunner of an opportunity for some young people with energy to get rich.

I've seen it before other places and I'm seeing it again now.

Some day I'm going to go wine tasting and some 30 something will tell me how he/she did it in 2009 with $40,000 equitity or something.

Everything is a cycle- not just in housing economics either.