Things are booming up here in the mountains. The far western North Carolina Counties of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon, Jackson and Swain have benefited from some longer term trends that have helped shake this beautiful area of the country out of the doldrums that took hold when the traditional textile industry all but collapsed. And that’s great news for North Carolina owners a Real Estate IRA.

Meanwhile, demographic trends in the western North Carolina area were extremely favorable for Real Estate IRA investors, with Clay County and Jackson County populations finally seeing strong population growth. That does a lot to stimulate demand both for rental housing as well as stand-alone single-family homes – and helps to buoy prices.

A recent report from the North Carolina Association of Realtors found there was a 10 percent growth in in home sales across the state measured by units, and a 16 percent increase in dollar terms, between 2014 and 2015.

One exception: Graham county, which actually experienced a small drop in net migration between 2010 and 2015.

In general, though, housing inventories have been headed downwards, and homes are selling faster – both bullish trends for home prices, and attractive conditions for anyone interested in starting or expanding a Real Estate IRA.

The median Asheville home price is now $242,000 which represents a 7.8 percent increase over 2014 numbers and a new record high, beating 2014 and 2006 house price averages, which both came in at $225,000.

The number of homes sold in Asheville also reached a new record in 2015, with 1,389 homes sold.

Now, Real Estate IRA investors have been burned before. The last time prices were near these levels in Asheville, Buncombe County and the surrounding areas was in 2006 – and that was a spectacularly bad time to buy a house in most markets, unless you were flipping.

What’s different now for Real Estate IRA owners? At that time there was a lot more competition among sellers at the $1 million price point, compared to modest demand. Now inventory is much lower, with housing supply much better matched to demand.

The Bear’s View

Naturally, every Real Estate IRA investor is going to want to hear the bearish view – and there is a bearish case to be made for real estate in the Ashville area. For example, a recent report from Nationwide ranks Asheville’s metro area housing market as among the nation’s most unhealthy real estate markets – the other most unsustainable markets being Watertown-Fort Drum, New York, Odessa and San Angelo Texas and Hammond, Louisiana.

Indeed, a drop in oil prices significantly affected a number of communities in Gulf states Texas and Louisiana. Asheville and Watertown-Fort Drum were the only markets in the bottom ten that was not in one of those two states.

Real Estate IRA investors who are risk averse but who want to remain close to the western North Carolina market can concentrate on less volatile markets outside of the Asheville area, however, where there is significantly less froth. They will still get the benefit of the longer-term trends benefiting the region.

As more and more Asheville are locals are priced out of the home ownership market, though, Real Estate IRA investors may find some traction in providing affordable rental opportunities close to town.

Clearly, there are a lot of ways to play the Asheville and western North Carolina market.

American IRA, LLC has a widely recognized team of experts when it comes to supporting Real Estate IRA investors. Unlike most investment companies, our fees are based on a menu of transactions, rather than calculated as a percentage of assets under management. This generally saves most of our investors hundreds or thousands of dollars, and is ideal for Real Estate IRA investors.

Call us today at 866-7500-IRA, or visit us at www.americanira.com. We look forward to hearing from you.