Forbes magazine released its annual “Best Places to Retire” list yesterday, and a few of our own favorite places made the grade in the top 25. They include Asheville, Austin, Columbia (SC) and Savannah.

        No such list would be complete without including Asheville, the western North Carolina mountain town favored by northerners looking for a laid-back –- some might say “progressive” –- southern mountain retreat, and Floridians tired of traffic, an increasing cost of living (despite no state income tax) and summer heat. Asheville summer temperatures average about 10 degrees lower than the flatter parts of the Carolinas during the summer.

Ball Flight:  An airstrip bisects the golf course along the top of the 4,500 foot mountain at Mountain Air.

 

        At GolfHomesListed, our companion web site, we have Asheville surrounded, with golf homes for sale currently listed to the northwest of the city, at Mountain Air in Burnsville, and at Champion Hills in Hendersonville, southeast of Asheville. Given its rarified height, Mountain Air is aptly named and features 50-mile views from its golf course and homes. The golf course, which was designed by Scott Pool, features an element you are unlikely to see anywhere else –- an airplane runway that cuts through the golf course along the very top of the mountain. As you travel from the second green on one side of the runway to the third tee on the other, an alarm and flashing red light may signal a wait for the group in front of you -– traveling by aircraft, not golf cart. Non-pilots too will love the care which owners of the community, the local Banks family, have lavished on the natural surroundings. The substantially wood and stone homes and the rustic clubhouse do nothing to detract from views that can literally take your breath away (at nearly 4,500 feet). At GolfHomesListed, you will find Mountain Air home sites listed from $209,000, villas from under $350,000 and single-family homes from $490,000.

Balls struck just off the funneled fairways at Champion Hills can leave some awkward stances.

 

        A little more down to earth but still up there is Champion Hills, whose core Tom Fazio golf course has always earned plaudits from North Carolina golf raters, but especially so since the course was renovated a few years ago. Fazio, who grew up in Hendersonville, clearly lavished extra attention on the design of his “home course” which features his customary signature cloverleaf bunkers and funneled fairways that can be both forgiving and occasionally frustrating with side-hill lies few of us take the time to practice. The community’s homeowners association is one of the most organized anywhere and, as we have written before, its approach to strategic planning should be the envy of many corporations. Champion Hills is a stable, financially sound and debt-free golf community worthy of a serious look. And you can start looking by browsing current Champion Hills properties for sale at GolfHomesLIsted, where homes start at $339,000 and range above $1 million.

        Please note: When you access more information about any listing at GolfHomesListed.com, we ask for your name and email address. We do this to follow up to ensure that we are providing top-notch service and to be able to update you on any new listings in the communities you look at. The real estate professionals who list properties at GolfHomesListed and we will never share your personal information with anyone. If you have any questions, please contact Publisher Larry Gavrich.

 

Coming Next: Savannah: Ford Plantation & The Landings

        Sometime late this summer, a bankruptcy judge is expected to formally turn The Cliffs Communities over to a group of new owners that includes an established developer of high-end golf communities, the real estate investment firm that staked a claim to 70% of the undeveloped lots in the community, and a wealthy couple who own property at High Carolina, the Cliffs community at which Tiger Woods intended to build his first U.S. golf course.

        During a meeting with club members last week, the putative owners indicated that they plan to revise the legendary Cliffs membership program, once described by the golf community’s former marketing firm as “the most comprehensive membership plan” anywhere.  According to a few members who attended the meeting, the top initiation

fee will cap out at $50,000 under the new owners’ plan; that top memberhsip will include access to the full roster of six golf clubs -- soon to be seven, with the completion of the Gary Player layout at Mountain Park.  Other membership plans will include a smaller number of courses, with members affiliated directly with the club in their community and limited play on other Cliffs courses.  (We hope to obtain soon a copy of the slideshow presented at the meeting.)

        The group that has purchased The Cliffs includes Sun TX Urbana, which bought most of the unsold lots from Cliffs original developer Jim Anthony in the year leading up to the bankruptcy filing (other lots were purchased by an Atlanta investment firm at auction in March); Arendale Holdings, whose affiliated company, Stokes Land Group, has experience in developing golf communities in Alabama; and wealthy Texans Steve and Penny Carlile, who made their money in the freight trucking business and have owned two homes in The Cliffs, at Walnut Cove near Asheville, and at High Carolina, beside the ill-fated Tiger Woods golf course.

        For the time being, the Cliffs’ web site is down and, presumably, there is a hold on the sale of developer lots.  There are, however, plenty of resale properties available in the Cliffs Communities in the Greenville area, along Lake Keowee and at Walnut Cove, near Asheville. At Walnut Cove, for example, a bank owned 1 ½ acre lot is listed for $139,900; the most expensive home on the market is a 7,500 square feet palace to be built on two acres, featuring four bedrooms and more than five baths, as well as four fireplaces.  One local real estate agency listed 122 properties currently for sale at Walnut Cove.  An hour away, at Lake Keowee, you can find a bank owned lot of 1.4 acres at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls for just $77,900 and homes at Keowee Vineyard for well into the millions.

        In the coming weeks, we will be listing Cliffs properties for sale in the Greenville area at GolfHomesListed.com, our companion web site.  The Realtor with the listings, Wanda Reed, worked at The Cliffs for more than eight years and knows the Glassy, Valley, Mountain Park and High Carolina developments extremely well.  Look for her listings soon.