Fall 2022 Market Update

Residential Update:

Wow!  Summer flew by and here we are.  We started off with a year of low-interest rates and have seen the effects of higher rates and more economic uncertainty play into the market.  While widespread bidding wars on homes have slowed, some homes in the mountains have still been competitive due to low inventory.  

This has been another year of record-low home inventory so far.  The supply and demand element has kept values in many areas stable.  One outlier this summer was Beech Mountain where we did see more homes and condos come on the market relative to the greater market.  

For buyers, a somewhat slower pace of buyer competition could benefit your search compared to 6 months ago, but there are still limited options.  

For sellers, it is still a good time to evaluate your property going into fall/winter.  In the past few years, we have had strong fall/winter market activity.  Given that there are still limited options out there for buyers, certain properties still have the potential to sell quickly if they are priced right.  

The land market has been slower-paced but consistent.  Challenges in the land market have been the shortage of contracting labor and increased building costs. 

Most builders in our market have been booked out 2-3 years and materials have been either hard to get or expensive.  Lumber prices today in the Wall Street Journal were reported to be back down to pre-COVID levels, so perhaps this will help.  

For long-term-minded buyers looking to build a vacation or retirement home, there are still some great values to be had on land.  The land market did not see the large increases in values that residential has over the past few years.  

Inventory on land is down 19% year over year in Avery/Watauga counties.  While there are still more land tracts or parcels for sale, inventory has gone down in recent years.  
 

Boone gained some national attention in past weeks when Appalachian State Football almost beat UNC-Tarheels with a record attendance of around 40,000.  A week later they then beat Texas A&M.  A week after that, App hosted ESPN College Gameday in Boone for the Troy game, winning the game with a hail mary pass in the final play.  

This is all to say, I think increased recognition for our area and long-term demographic trends will continue to help the High Country grow.  We are blessed to be in an area where people want to live.
 

Best, -Nate & Kelsey Wright