Considering Hendersonville (Charlotte, Asheville, Banner Elk: real estate, home, job market)

[don36]

We are presently living in the north and are wanting to get away from snow (not the seasons, just so much snow) and have just returned from a four week tour of N and S Carolina. To give you some perspective, we covered the territory from Charlotte, SC to Banner Elk, NC as much as time would allow.
We are looking for an area with an strong community of artists, some good library facilities, and a history and genealogy community. Because of things we were told about Asheville, we did not visit there although it is not ruled out. The idea of lower taxes, and a lower cost of living appeals to us. We both liked the Hendersonville area very much, but know that those who live there would be much better informed on the +s and -s of the community than we could ever get from a visit of about a week. People seemed to be very friendly and accepting of visitors and that is appealing to us.
For those who do or have lived there, we would appreciate your view of the community. As I am retired and my wife is an artist, the local job market is of real interest only as it effects the local economy in general. Any helpful comments are appreciated!

[louise50]

Hi Don, if you could be more specific in your questions, maybe I could help you. I am a native here and have seen many changes and most are for the good. Hendersonville , NC anymore is definitely a retiree haven, partly because of the mild climates, excellent medical facilities, less expensive cost of living compared to the North etc. Until the current economy downslide, the real estate was hitting very high numbers in comparsion with wages earned. Recently, I am seeing real estate prices comparable to the 70's - 80's. I would have to say, that the thing I dislike the most about Hendersonville's changes is the increased amount of traffic because of so many people moving in. It seems when the streets were laid out there wasn't taken into account that this many people would be living here. Now the streets are very congested most of the time, in part because of one way streets etc. Another thing I would like to see happen and which has been discussed but never implemented is to have maybe a Civic Center . For your wife, we have numerous very talented artists and therefore really nice art shows. Overall, Hendersonville, NC is a very nice, peaceful, quaint town which offers to some degree all one needs to be comfortable. And of course, larger cities are within minutes away if you can't find what you need here. I would suggest you read the city-data on here and specifically Hendersonville. Also, googling Hendersonville would be helpful as the sites seem accurate. Hope this helps. I am sure many others will respond to your post.

[louise50]

Don, where it says "city-data in my post, it should be Western North Carolina forum. I had put WNC and it showed up city-data????????

[Dreamy46]

Originally Posted by louise50

Hi Don, if you could be more specific in your questions, maybe I could help you. I am a native here and have seen many changes and most are for the good. Hendersonville , NC anymore is definitely a retiree haven, partly because of the mild climates, excellent medical facilities, less expensive cost of living compared to the North etc. Until the current economy downslide, the real estate was hitting very high numbers in comparsion with wages earned. Recently, I am seeing real estate prices comparable to the 70's - 80's. I would have to say, that the thing I dislike the most about Hendersonville's changes is the increased amount of traffic because of so many people moving in. It seems when the streets were laid out there wasn't taken into account that this many people would be living here. Now the streets are very congested most of the time, in part because of one way streets etc. Another thing I would like to see happen and which has been discussed but never implemented is to have maybe a Civic Center . For your wife, we have numerous very talented artists and therefore really nice art shows. Overall, Hendersonville, NC is a very nice, peaceful, quaint town which offers to some degree all one needs to be comfortable. And of course, larger cities are within minutes away if you can't find what you need here. I would suggest you read the city-data on here and specifically Hendersonville. Also, googling Hendersonville would be helpful as the sites seem accurate. Hope this helps. I am sure many others will respond to your post.

Real estate prices from the 70's or 80's is really amazing for your area Louise.

Do you have any links for that?

All I could find was 10 year charts on Zillow that don't show those kinds of declines.

Hendersonville Home Prices, Home Values, and Property Values in NC - Zillow Local Info