Asheville Area in the News
CITIZEN-TIMES.com
WNC housing values rise
Mark Barrett
November 30, 2007 12:15 am
Asheville area homes had the ninth-highest appreciation rate in the country over the past year, according to federal figures released Thursday.
The rise in values comes despite a sharp drop in the number of homes sold.
Single-family homes in the Asheville metropolitan statistical area — Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties — increased 9.4 percent in value over the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, according to figures from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
The national average was a 1.8 percent increase, the lowest since 1995, and values actually fell 0.4 percent nationally for the third quarter of 2007, the first quarterly decline in nearly 13 years. Values in the Asheville area rose 2.0 percent in the quarter.
Of the 287 metropolitan areas ranked, 204 saw home values rise compared with the same quarter a year ago, and values fell in 84.
Some observers predict tougher times ahead for local real estate, which has seen big drops in the number of homes sold in recent months.
The federal figures measure only a portion of the market. They are based on data on “conforming” home loans — those for less than $417,000 — bought or backed by government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
That excludes homes with mortgages greater than $417,000, condominiums and homes bought with subprime mortgages. Other national measures of the trajectory of home values have painted a more pessimistic picture but generally don’t include information specific to Asheville.
Also Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department said the median sales price of a new home fell 13 percent in October compared with a year ago, the biggest 12-month decline since 1970.
'Pretty amazing’
The apparent growth in local housing values “is pretty amazing given the current housing market,” said Beth Burdick, mortgage adviser with Asheville-based Ashford Mortgage Advisors.
The number of homes sold through the Western North Carolina Regional Multiple Listing Service — which includes the four Asheville MSA counties plus Transylvania County — was down 26 percent for the first 10 months of 2007 compared with the same period of 2006. But the median sale price was up 4.8 percent.
The number of sales fell 32 percent in October versus October 2006.
Tom Tveidt, head of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce’s research arm, said the area’s strong results according to the federal figures is surprising.
Home values here had been rising more slowly than in other areas a few years ago and therefore may not have as far to fall now, he said. The area has experienced no large economic disruption, and other factors that might push values down — large numbers of speculators or those unable to make higher payments on subprime mortgages — are less of a factor here than in other markets, he said.
Appreciation likely to slow
Burdick and analyst Don Davies, of Don Davies Real Estate, both said appreciation in the market is likely to slow soon and may be doing so already.
National economic problems are a factor and, “Right now, there’s a lot more property on the market, so (buyers) know they don’t have to make an instantaneous decision,” Burdick said.
On the other hand, she added, people still want to move to the region and buy a home, even though they are bargaining harder on price than they once did.
The federal report Thursday said the impact of market downturns on home prices is sometimes muted because “homeowners are hesitant to sell their homes for losses, often leaving their homes on the market for long periods awaiting the ‘right’ price.”
Nationally, “While select markets still maintain robust rates of appreciation, our newest data show price weakening in a very significant portion of the country,” James B. Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight office, said in a statement. Prices declined in more than 20 states, he said.
