East Buncombe Apartment Communities:
Willow Ridge Apartments, Chunns Cove Road (28805 zip code): $690 and up
Haw Creek Mews, New Haw Creek Road (28805): $700 and up
River Ridge Apartments, Off I-240 Exit 8 (28803): $745 and up
Parkway Crossing, Off US70 at Riceville Road (28805): $590 and up
Eastwood Village, Off 74-A in Reynolds/Fairview (28803): $775 and up
The above can be found at Apartments.com using their
Zip Code search. Searching Swannanoa (28778), Black Mountain (28711), and Ridgecrest (28770) there produced little, however.
AshevilleRent.com is a good resource too. Use their
advanced search to plug in location descriptions and you should find some results.
And of course
Craigslist and
Iwanna (http://www.ashevilleiwanna.com/viewads/displaycats.aspx?main=castles - broken link) may have some possibilities.
I don't make the commute down to Marion, but I'd think the main thing to get used to is driving the Old Fort Mountain grade down and back up every day. In the winter, that could be an adventure, though I think clearing that stretch of highway is a priority since they want to keep the East-West truck traffic moving.
Might be worth looking into rentals in Old Fort.
Good luck!