This is Part Three in our series on buying and building. Here are Part One and Part Two.

Buying in the High Country

I have been asked by a plethora of folks lately “Who is buying?” The High Country has always been a second home market, but there seems to be an evolution occurring.

When I moved here five years ago, the market was slow. I started my own property management company for vacation rentals just to compensate for the lack of sales.  Most of the folks I did work with were looking for a second home, investment property, or just a family get-away.  Out of these, the majority paid cash.

In the last two years, I wanted to see if there was a shift from vacation homes to primary residences. Lately it seems that the buyers reaching out to me are only looking for a second home about 25% of the time. I tell my team regularly “get prepared, the market shift is approaching.” All the families that live within a three-hour radius of Boone that just got the “go ahead” to work remotely are high-tailing it to our little piece of paradise. Why wait till you are 65 and retired to move to the mountains, or the ocean, or anywhere that you go on vacation, when these places can now, reasonably, be called “home”?

Checking some numbers in the High Country MLS caused this discovery:

• As of 2/26/2018 – in the last 180 days there were 965 single family homes/condos/townhomes that sold in Ashe Avery and Watauga Counties.
• 384 of those sales were CASH transactions and had an average sale price of $300K
• 498 sales in the last 180 days got Conventional Financing and had an average sold price of $282K.
• 8 owner financing
• 25 FHA Loans
• 25 VA Loans
• 25 – of unknown financing

Looking back at the same 180 days 2 years ago here is what I found

• There were 739 sales of single family homes/condos/townhouses
• 289 of those sales were cash sales
• 362 of those sales were conventional loans
• 15 FHA loans
• 21 owner financed
• 20 VA loans

Breakdown of the findings:

40% of the sales today are cash, 60% were financed in the last 180 days.

40% of the sales two years ago were cash, almost 60% of the deals were financed.

Interesting that year over year the cash vs finance buyer remains THE SAME.  Obviously with 965 homes sold in the last 180 days and only 739 in the same time-frame 2 years ago, we are seeing MORE sales. By my calculation that is 24% increase.

More people ARE moving here. I base that assumption more on my gut and the fact that the premise of why folks can, and will, move to a vacation destination vs a larger city is about quality of life.  The High Country will continue to remain a vacation destination but as we see an increase in new construction I expect that more and more of these consumers will be building a primary residence. Only time will tell for certain. If you are thinking that you want to move to our little piece of heaven, call The Chaney Group! We will shoot you straight on the trials and tribulations of this “life-style evolution.”