Vacant Land, Lots, and Acreage - Buncombe County, NC - November 2008
Buncombe County includes the cities or areas of Asheville, Weaverville, Leicester, Black Mountain, Arden, Skyland, Candler, and Biltmore Forest.
Buncombe County land sales in 2008 have averaged about 54% of sales in 2007. That would indicate that the land sales have lagged behind just like home sales and that would seem to indicate that investors/developers/speculators have slowed in concert with the existing housing market.
348 parcels have been Sold in 2008 with an Average Sold Price of $145,712, a slight decrease from October prices.
A breakdown of those sales, year to date, looks like this:
1 acre or under - 166 parcels sold with an Average Sold Price of $90,953.
1 to 2.99 acres - 111 parcels sold with an Average Sold Price of $125,280.
3 to 4.99 acres - 30 parcels sold with an Average Sold Price of $131,673.
5 to 9.99 acres - 13 parcels sold with an Average Sold Price of $231,350.
10 to 20 acres - 11 parcels were sold with an Average Sold Price of $307,655.
There are currently 2347 parcels of any size on the market with an Average Asking Price of $258,329.
The Average Asking Price of the 3,250 Residential homes "for sale" in Buncombe County is $465,211.
It is fairly obvious that the high cost of vacant land has a great affect on the overall cost of homes in our area.
(The above 3.06 acre lot next to new house in Leicester, NC can be purchased for $149,000 with underground utilities/DSL/phone and is ready to build on. Broker/Owner)
Asheville, Buncombe County, NC Real Estate Market Statistics -
Active and Sold - November 2008 and 2007 Comparisons
Our Active Residential Listings have increased 6% from this same time last year.
The Average Asking Price has increased 3.8% and Median Asking Price has increased 1.7%.
What we faced this month was the lowest number of homes sold in a month in over 7 years! It was a decrease of 53% over November 2007.
That is the real problem we still face, the SOLD numbers are down. This month the SOLD prices are also down significantly from November 2007. As you can see by the chart below, we have been down significantly on our SOLD numbers and that has been the case all of the last 12 months, yet our inventory has increased.
Also the number of Days on Market is at the highest levels in over 5 years for both Active and Sold listings.
Residential Properties = Single Family Homes, Condos, Townhouses & Mobiles on Owned Land
AR Members: Post your listings and market reports at the Group: http://activerain.com/groups/CityStateListingsReports
NOVEMBER - 2008
It has always been difficult to say exactly what a "healthy" real estate market should look like.Prices and inventory seem to set the theme and "location, location, location" is not always the final judgment of health or desirability.
In the "good days", in the Asheville area, a "normal" real estate market was estimated to be when the housing inventory of homes for sale should be somewhere around 6 to 7 months supply. Asheville and Buncombe County are continuing to hold steady at about 15 months supply, on average.
This is the normal slow-down time of year and inventory is normally reduced because some sellers do not want to have lookers go through the house in winter weather or during the holidays.
In Asheville, we are continuing to see a slow, but small, reduction in home prices, as the inventory sits at the top of recent high numbers, although the inventory has begun to reduce due to the normally slower time of year.
There has been an increase in the number of properties offered under the "short sale" concept, which is where the mortgage holder agrees to let the owner attempt to sell the house for less than what is owed, so as to prevent a foreclosure.
The real area of concern continues to be about the homes over $400,000. The worrisome market is the homes at or over $1 million. The number of sales per month compared to the existing inventory suggests a rather long term for that inventory to either shrink or see prices drop by large percentages.
Sales of homes under $285,000 seem to be stable with only a small excess in inventory. This would indicate that the "average" buyer has plenty of homes to choose from and most of them are at fair market value.
The question is....where are the buyers? It looks like September, October and November are going to be the worst months this year for unit sales.
Residential Properties = Single Family Homes, Condos, Townhouses & Mobiles on Owned Land
NOVEMBER 2008
Buncombe County is the home of Asheville, NC.
Buncombe County and the surrounding areas of Asheville, Leicester, Black Mountain, Biltmore Forest, and Arden, like the rest of the country, have been experiencing many of the trends that keep the real estate markets unsettled.
Active listings inventory would normally drop this time of year due to sellers not wanting to have their home on the market in winter conditions and because of the holidays, when they don't want surprise visitors. We have seen a slight drop in active listings, but they are not yet at the "healthy" level.
There has been a slight change in the market conditions compared to last month, but only slight. The continuing bad news is that the number of homes over or close to $1 million are not moving, however, they are seeing price reductions and therefore, the increase in the numbers for November in the $750,000 to $1 million price range. The broad inventory is still hovering around the record high numbers, although there has been a turn to the down side.
Until mid-summer the Asheville area has historically been immune from the negative real estate trends that the rest of the country has been experiencing. This is different now. The market "slumps" in most of the country has now had an impact on the Asheville area, at least as far as homes over the $275,000 mark.
This story is the same as last several months, but the Asheville area has continued to see a dramatic slow-down of Sold homes, a moderately fluctuating inventory, and a noticeable drop in "pending" listings. The two numbers that seem to tell the continuing story of the Asheville market appear to be the small percentage of homes under $100,000 and the high number of homes over $1,000,000, considering we sell only about 3 homes per month in that price range.
The record number of Active Listings in Buncombe County is 3,493 which was set in September, 2008.
The trend indicator below is for the current month compared to last month.
Residential Properties = Single Family Homes, Condos, Townhouses & Mobiles on Owned Land
BUNCOMBE COUNTY November 2008 - Current Inventory by Price Range
It is, most likely, redundant to make any statement about how the real estate market has taken a downturn, but until our local newspaper, The Asheville Citizen Times, called me today to do some additional research on the sale of new homes sold in 2006, 2007 and 2008 through October, I had not fully absorbed how the new home market had been affected.
In Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, in 2006, the number of newly constructed homes that were sold was 916. That amounted to a dollar amount of $301,211,741 or an average of $328,834 per home. At that time the average selling price for all homes sold in Buncombe County was $274,844. There were a total of 4101 homes sold that year.
In 2007 there were 712 newly constructed homes sold. The dollar amount of those sales was $279,600,309 or an average of $392,697 per home. The average selling price for all homes in the county was $293,272. There were a total of 3427 sold that year.
In 2008, 478 newly constructed homes have sold through the end of October. The dollar amount of those sales is $168,941,917 which averages $353,435 per home while the average selling price for all homes in the county has been $280,363. So far this year there have been a total of 2179 homes sold through the end of October.
Our new home sales market has been reduced by 48% since 2006 and the dollar amount has been reduced by 44%.
When one thinks about the negative economic influence a slowing new construction market has on all of the various occupations, it is mind blowing.
Currently, the bad news is, there are a fair amount of builders, banks and developers that are holding new homes that have little or no market demand for the time being.
For the purpose of defining home sales, all single family homes, condos, townhomes and manufactured homes are included.
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Innovation in Real Estate Since 1984. 1st Exclusive Buyer's Agent in WNC. 1st Discount Listing Service Provider in WNC. REALSEARCH provides Buncombe County Real Estate Statistics, Trends & Refer
Today, I am a Research and Referral conduit for Sellers and Buyers. I rarely take new listings or work with new buyer clients. I work primarily as a referral agent. At this time, I work only with past clients and the referrals they send to me. After over 20 years in the business in Asheville, I am able to go in that business decision.
The benefit, to Sellers and Buyers looking for agents to work with in our market, is I have learned how to determine which agents are truly successful in their field of expertise, in all those years of my experinece in this market As a result, where I can be of the most assistance to a Buyer or Seller is to guide the Buyer or Seller in the "right" direction in their choice of the agent they may decide to work with. I refer you to the most qualified agents among the masses of the "old -timer" established, the newbies, the good ones and the ones that may best be suited for the particular needs of you, the client. I also help you avoid considering the agents that may not deliver the services you are expecting. All this is done through my research of the history of the agents best suited for the job based on their past production and legacy. There is NEVER a charge to the Buyer or Seller for the referral. The receiving agent pays my fee from their commission, when a sale is completed. For Sellers, the referral I make is based on the price range of the property, the location, the time frame desired to sell, and to an extent, the personalities of the parties. There are agents who think they are "multi-talented", but today, agents are no longer all things to all people. There are agents that specialize in, or just plain do better with homes under $250,000. There are agents that specialize in homes from $200,000 to $500,000, those that only do well if the home is over $450,000, those that don't do much outside the city limits, those that prefer only new homes, etc. I sort through all of that to pinpoint the one best suited for the job based on the facts, not hyperbole. For Buyers, the referral is based on the longevity of the agent and the background necessary to truly appreciate the special relationship a buyer and the agent should have. I avoid any agent that believes in dual agency as the "best" solution to helping buyers and sellers. Buyers and Sellers are adversaries and the agent needs to understand that the buyer should be given every fact to put that buyer in the best negotiating position possible based on the facts and knowledge of the market. A great buyer's agent should be a great researcher, not a bulletin board reader. The referral and research that I do is not based on a "buddy" system! It is based on the pure facts resulting from an MLS search of the sales in the area of interest of the client. It is my job to see who is doing what in the marketplace using my research skills. If you need to know which of the 1,900 Asheville agents might be the best agent for you, give me a call or email. It costs you nothing unless YOU pick the wrong agent without having a little help. Now, with that said, sometimes even the "best" will not give you exactly what you had hoped for, but we will try to find the "best" suited to your needs. www.asheville.com for the latest in "Things to do in Asheville."
REALSEARCH 
Market condition statistics, especially current trends, can be very useful to some buyers and sellers. Since market conditions affect how we market and, the expectations we have, I do a great deal of statistical research (not just 3 listing CMAs) to help my clients, the local newspaper, the Chamber of Commerce, other brokers, and clients of other agents, etc. with the research they find necessary. As a Realtor, I find many fellow Realtors, because it can be time consuming and tasking, do not pay a great deal of attention to in-depth statistics and trends.
That is where REALSEARCH comes in.
This research service, for both real estate professionals and the general public, compiles the data that is a roadmap into the market conditions in Western North Carolina (specializing in, but not limited to Buncombe County/Asheville), for at least one year back, on a monthly basis (some research is done daily) for Buncombe County single family residential real estate market, which includes single family homes, condos, townhomes, and mobile homes on owned land.
This is NOT a "Crystal Ball" approach and is not a forecasting program, but rather a gathering of the statistics gained from the Western North Carolina Regional Multiple Listing Service (WNCRMLS). It is designed to show trends. It provides data about the number of Active listings (daily), as well as the number of Listed, Pending, Sold and Expired (monthly). The "Average List Price" and the "Median List Price" and "Days on Market"(DOM) are displayed. The "Year to Date" number of "Sold" compared to a year ago and the percentage difference is recorded.
The Asheville/Buncombe County reports are provided in Windows format on Excel (data and charts) and Word. $50 for first report, which includes the last quarter "Year in Review" and then $25 per report (provided monthly, for any month desired) thereafter. Customized research is also possible on an hourly basis.
You tell me what data you need, and I will do the research for you.
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