Western North Carolina Real Estate Market Update: Q1 of 2022
What does it look like when a red hot real estate market is overheating? A case could be made that this is the very state of the Asheville area and Western North Carolina market as summer nears and demand continues to exceed supply. While we know that similar trends have been seen nationally, the Western North Carolina market seems to be seeing an intensified version of demand – a demand that, thus far, has been untouched by rising interest rates.
Buncombe County
In Buncombe County, it's worth noting that new listings are down 12.6% YTD even with sellers having the attractive opportunity to sell their homes at very high prices. The new listings trends are likely reflective of the reality that many people aren't selling at an opportune time because the options for purchasing in the area are also at a challenging point given the market's price increases.
- The Q1 average sales price is up 13% from last year, as the average sales price hits over $517,000
- Days on market decreased from 50 to 34 days, a 32% decrease
- For the month of March, the percent of the original list price received ended at 101%
Burke County
Burke County revealed a slightly different story as the month of March was 42% higher than 2021 for new listings. This is a notable increase, but it’s also worth keeping in mind that new listings for 2022 are only up 4.8% YTD. List to close and days on market until sale stats both increased. This could indicate that the Burke market is seeing a slight shift, but these are still very low increases.
- The Q1 average sales price is up nearly 14% from last year
- Days on market for Q1 was at 37 days, up 8.8% compared to Q1 of 2021
- The percent of the original list price received reached 98.9%, up 2.4% from March 2021
McDowell County
For McDowell County, new listings were down 12.2% YTD. The average sales price increased an astonishing 70.3% YTD, bringing McDowell County’s average price from $250,255 at the end of Q1 2021 to $426,214. This massive increase could also correlate to different types of homes being sold in 2022 versus 2021.
- As mentioned above, the Q1 average sales price was up 70.3%
- Days on market stats for Q1 were relatively flat at 53 DOM, compared to 50 last year
- In the month of March, the percent of the original list price received declined slightly to 95.8% (a 2% decline)
In our assessment, an increase in inventory is a necessity for a more balanced housing market. Demand has surpassed inventory supply for the
past several years. Buncombe County saw a very small increase in inventory in the month of March from 317 homes on the market to 330 homes on the market. The month's supply of inventory also increased from .7 to .8. While these are not major shifts, it is a welcome sight to our market. Burke County is mirroring a similar increase in inventory, while supply in McDowell County remains flat for now.
If you have any questions about buying or selling or have questions about the Western North Carolina market, please don’t hesitate to reach out or visit us at one of our 4 office locations in Asheville, Black Mountain, Lake James, or Old Fort.