“You can buy more house today than you will be able to in January and February, your investment goes further towards buying a house today”
What is commonly referred to as “affordable” housing and the availability of housing in general is a pretty hot topic around most of Hendersonville and Henderson County.
Local realtor Bill Fishburne with Beverly Hanks and Associates says ..." local home sales have been very strong this summer “...they were strong last year, and they have continued at that level this year Fishburne told WHKP News last week.
In fact there have been 2545 “closings” of single family homes and condominiums in August alone...which Fishburne says is up better that 4.5 per cent over August of last year.
Looking toward the winter, he says “We always have the winter “fall off” in the market”, with some who take their homes off the market or may be out of town for the season...so home sales are typically slower in November, December and January. Fishburne says that local home sales “come roaring back” towards mid February. “I try to tell clients that if you don’t have your house on the market you probably won’t sell it, but if you do have yours on the market you have a very good chance of selling it.”
As for the availability of homes for sale, “We just don’t have enough inventory. That’s the problem”, says Fishburne. But still, sales are strong...we are at record levels, he says.
As for how many homes are available for sale, Henderson county has a 4.1 month supply right now of new and re-sale homes, says Fishburne. “If no new houses came on the market, we’d be out of homes to sell in 4.1 months.”
“We did have a little “sales glitch” during July and early August, and that’s because there was nothing to sell...theres were house out there but the people who wanted to buy didn’t want those houses ao that slowed the market a little bit.”
Fishburne points out “We have a good supply of buyers out there, so now is a good time to sell a home”.
“This is a great time to list your house for sale because prices have never been higher and there is a shortage of homes.” At the same time, Fishburne points out “This is also a great time to buy a house before interest rate go higher...they are inching up slowly but surely”.
“You can buy more house today that you will be able to in January and February, your investment goes further towards buying a house today”. He suns it up by saying that now is a great time to both list...and to buy a home.
A lot of new people are moving here now and realtor Fishburne says about one third of the home buyers he deals with are moving here from out of this region. Those who are “moving up’ in housing or “down sizing” is still though the majority of the local market.
“This is just such an attractive area to live in.” “An increasing number of people are moving here; no place can beat Western North Carolina; and when people compare Hendersonville with other towns, they come back to Hendersonville.”
Fishburne adds, “It’s just a great place to live”.
By Tippy Creswell and Larry Freeman
