January 21, 2020

Contact: Kim Walker, 704-940-3149

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – As 2019 ended, Realtors® in the 13-county Asheville region wrapped up an unusually busy December with sales rising 24.6 percent over December 2018. For all of 2019, there were 11,200 properties sold in the Asheville region, which was an 11.0 percent increase over sales in 2018.

Canopy MLS, which tracks data in Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania and Yancey counties, showed pending sales, which are typically a gauge of future sales and buyer demand, rose 15.6 percent in 2019 over 2018. Pending sales during the month of December spiked even higher with a 55.3 percent increase over December 2018 as buyers continued their search for homes across the region.

Prices continued to respond to seller’s market conditions, with the average list price in 2019 ($372,532) rising 3.9 percent over the average list price in 2018 ($358,696).
At year end, both the average sales price ($307,284) and the median sales price ($260,000) ended the year up 3.0 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively, resulting in an original list price to sales price measure for the year of 93.7 percent. The region ended the year with 3,884 active listings in inventory and 4.0 months of supply.

Yearend Asheville MSA activity

Sales across the Asheville MSA in 2019 rose 6.1 percent compared to home sales in 2018, and there were 7,721 properties sold in 2019. As the primary economic center for the region, buyer demand, as displayed by pending contracts, continues to be strong. Pending contracts ended the year up 10.7 percent compared to contracts written in 2018. As a predictor of future sales, pending sales counts show that sales should be steady headed into 2020.

With inventory continuing its downward trend (falling 20.5 percent at year’s end) and with months of supply at 3.3 months, buyers will continue to find strong sellers’ market conditions impacting prices throughout the Asheville metro in 2020. Both the median ($282,500) and the average ($333,147) sales prices for the year rose 5.8 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively. The average list price at year’s end ($395,615) rose 7.7 percent over the average list price in 2018, and the yearend original list price to sales price measure was 94.3 percent for all of 2019.

Dave Noyes, a Realtor®/broker with RE/MAX Results and a Canopy MLS Board of Directors member representing the Asheville region, said, “Typically here in the mountains we have well-defined seasons, which affect the overall pace of sales. However, December’s strong activity, along with the momentum of sales in the last half of 2019, shows that sales may not be slowing down anytime soon. Buyers will continue to be challenged this year by the lack of supply closer to Asheville, but this could be good for the region overall, as buyers can still find homes in many of the adjacent counties.”

New residential listings for all of 2019 rose 2.7 percent across the MSA, but this was still not enough to increase inventory. Days on Market for the year averaged 67 days in 2019 compared to 65 days in 2018.

Haywood County sales positive as buyers push for homes; Henderson County sales fall

Sales in Haywood County in 2019 were up 5.1 percent over sales in 2018, with 1,147 homes sold. Buyers pushed out of Henderson and Buncombe counties due to increasingly tight supply will continue to expand their searches into Haywood County in 2020. Buyer demand in 2019, as displayed through pending sales counts, rose 13.8 percent over pending sales in 2018, with 1,202 contracts written. Prices showed moderate increases over price in 2018, with both the median ($230,000) and the average ($256,466) sales prices rising 5.7 and 3.8 percent, respectively. At year’s end Haywood County had 408 active listings in inventory, or 4.1 months of supply.

With inventory extremely tight in Henderson County, 2019 sales dipped slightly (-0.8 percent) compared to 2018, with 2,080 homes sold in 2019. In markets where inventory is tight, sales tend to be weaker. Inventory in December fell 23.0 percent, leaving the county with 531 active listings, or 2.9 months of supply. The lack of inventory will continue to pressure prices into the new year. Prices at year’s end showed both the median sales price ($275,000) and the average sales price ($308,007) up 5.8 and 7.6 percent, respectively, compared to 2018. Pending sales counts for the year rose 4.8 percent with 2,173 contracts written in 2019. New listing activity for the year declined slightly (-0.5 percent), further underscoring sellers’ hesitancy at listing and compounding the inventory challenges. Days on Market (DOM) averaged 62 days during 2019, which is slightly faster than DOM in Haywood, which averaged 78 days in 2019.

For more residential-housing market statistics, visit www.CarolinaHome.com and click on “Market Data.”  For an interview with an Asheville-area Realtor®/broker, please contact Kim Walker.

Canopy MLS is a wholly-owned subsidiary corporation of Canopy Realtor® Association and is the private broker cooperative used by Realtors® to bring buyers and sellers together with access to thousands of residential listings in a multicounty service area, including Charlotte, the mountains area of North Carolina, South Carolina, and beyond.  Canopy MLS, which has 17,500 Subscribers, provides the most trustworthy, timely, accurate and complete property data along with proprietary tools for showings, market stats, predictive analytics, and more, used by its members to support consumers in their residential real estate transactions, whether selling, buying, investing or renting.

Original Publish Date: 1/21/2020