A recent article in Barron’s magazine identified its 10 top choices of the best places to buy a second home. With the exception of Aspen, CO (6%), all the magazine’s choices are in markets whose prices are off by double-digit percentages since the peak. Park City, UT, the article indicates, is down 45%.
We can’t quibble with Barron's two choices in the Carolinas, which include Kiawah Island (#2, and off 21% from peak) and Asheville, NC (#9 and off 38% from peak). The article’s author, Steven M. Sears, indicates that all market price reductions are anecdotal, the results of conversations with locals (our own informal research indicates Asheville prices have not dropped quite as much as the article indicates). So too are the median prices of homes he cites, $1.4 million and $700,000 on Kiawah and in Asheville, respectively.
Although you can pay as much as $7 million for a house on Kiawah Island, home to some of the best golf courses on the east coast, I know of some interesting buys at $700,000 and less, like a 3 BR, 3 BA contemporary-styled home with marsh views and a cul de sac setting that is listed at $695,000. If you prefer the higher altitude setting of Asheville and its surrounding Blue Ridge mountains, plenty of good choices are available under the $700,000 median. For example, at the highly rated Champion Hills in Hendersonville, a 2,800 square foot “arts and crafts” style two-story house with 4 BRs and 3 BAs is listed at $669,000. Champion Hills’ Tom Fazio designed golf course was recently rated by Golf Digest as the 5th best in North Carolina. I believe it; I thought the course was excellent when I played it four years ago, and it has been improved in the years since.
You can read the Barron’s article by clicking here. If you would like more information on Kiawah, Asheville or any other golf rich areas in the southern U.S., please contact me.
Tom Fazio lavished much care on his design for Champion Hills, which is located in the designer's hometown of Hendersonville, NC, about a half hour from Asheville.