Over the last three months, Buncombe County’s real estate market settled into its most balanced state in recent memory.
That’s the biggest takeaway from the latest market analysis released by Asheville-based Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty, which covers the period from July through September. The overall inventory of homes on the market was enough to meet roughly six months of sales demand, a level housing economists consider to favor buyers and sellers equally.
Homeowners looking to unload their properties, Mosaic owner and broker Mike Figura told the Citizen Times, may have to adjust their expectations to this new reality. After years of rapidly rising home values, median sale prices in Asheville and Buncombe County have remained essentially
unchanged since 2025.
“To sellers, who really did get used to a large stretch of time where they were in control, that feels like the market has shifted to a buyer’s market. But that’s not really what the data shows,” Figura said. “When things transition to a neutral market, it’s not a seller’s market anymore, but that doesn’t mean that the market is heavily favoring buyers either.”
Demand remained heavy for properties under the county’s median sale price of $477,000. In parts of Buncombe outside of Asheville, for example, inventory was closer to four months for most homes priced less than $450,000. While modestly priced inventory appeared to be a bit higher at lower prices within Asheville city limits, Figura said many of those homes require substantial maintenance.
“If you have something that’s turnkey and ready to go, that’s priced under $500,000 in Buncombe County or Asheville, that’s going to go quickly,” he explained. “But there’s a lot of stuff that’s priced cheaply that needs a lot of work. After you fix it up, that $400,000 house might really be a $600,000 house.”
Figura added that new home construction has played a substantial role in keeping Buncombe’s median sale price down. As national builders like D.R. Horton — America’s largest homebuilder by volume — have entered the local market, they’ve used economies of scale to produce housing more cheaply.
Over the past year, just four companies built 123 homes in Buncombe County that sold for less than $460,000, representing about 30% of all new housing sales. Without those builders, the median price for new homes in the county would have been $550,000.
“That definitely surprises me,” Figura said. “They’re providing new construction inventory in lower price ranges, which is fantastic for our marketplace.”
The single-family home market may be following a similar dynamic as the apartment industry. As recently reported by Asheville Watchdog, area rents have started to decline thanks to increased supply. However, affordable options remain limited for low-income residents.
Whether Buncombe’s housing market will retain its balance in the coming months remains an open question. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years on Sept. 16, near the end of the period covered by Mosaic’s latest report. Mortgage rates subsequently increased, passing 7% in late September.
Higher borrowing costs generally decrease demand for home sales, giving buyers who can afford to purchase property additional negotiating power. Figura said he expects to see the impacts of the new interest rates emerge through the end of this year.
Daniel Walton is the City Government Watchdog Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at dwalton@citizentimes.com, and connect with him on social media through Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville home prices level off as market shifts
