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"After having enjoyed years of steady home sales and appreciation, Buncombe this year has recorded 845 foreclosure filings through July 31, according to a new N.C. Justice Center report. That puts the county on pace to shatter last year's record of 1,168 filings.In the 17 mountain counties, foreclosure filings rose from 2,152 in 2006 to 4,635 in 2009, a 115 percent increase.
With four months left in 2010, most counties appear to be on pace to exceed those 2009 numbers.
The new wave — unlike the foreclosure boom fueled by risky mortgages of more recent years — is sweeping up people who have simply lost jobs, suffered medical emergencies or had a spouse die."
I'm really afraid its only going to get worse too. There few jobs here that aren't somehow related to tourism. The county needs to wake up and start offering incentives to get some businesses here instead of having them all go to Greenville. Otherwise this place will become a ghost town with nothing but florida retirees and homeless.
With all due respect, Asheville will not become a "ghost town" if it doesn't spend tax payer dollars to recruit businesses (incentives). In my opinion, Asheville does not want to grow into Greenville or Charlotte or any kind of "big city." Preserving as much of the rural feel and beauty as possible is far better.
Asheville, like every other city in the nation, is suffering the ill effects of this economy. The city I left before I moved here had 500,000 people and they lost many jobs and many houses. City government slashed the budget over 30% and hundreds of City workers lost their jobs. Illinois and California are on the brink of bankruptcy. Spending more tax dollars to recruit businesses will not help those places, either.
Asheville has UNCA, a terrific arts community, natural beauty and the Parkway, excellent medical facilities, good shopping, a major East-West Interstate and a good North-South highway. Tourism is a logical source of revenue but it is suffering the ill effects of this economy.
Asheville will be fine as soon as the grinding depression ends.
I read the several pages of that and, the related articles in today's ACT...not sure I learned anything "new" or even insightful. Western NC is not really different than the rest of the country, in terms of the economic impact and, the credit use/misuse which is exacerbating these situations. Add in the jobs situ, and...something has got to give; in this case it's houses and cars, with loans on them.
Whether Asheville/western NC will keep "growing" for more than us retired bums that moved here over the past decade, remains to be seen. Whether the area "wants to" is muddled by the different voices I hear from the politicians, op-eds, and the media. It seems to me that a core of medical employment and some service industry and tourist supported jobs will not be enough to keep many of the kids becoming adults gang. That presents a real problem that gets addressed only by politicians waving arms about the next $13/hr joint that is opening/hiring.
Dunno...I would not want to be a late teen or early adult trying to find employment, buy a home, and "live" here. I do not know the answer, but housing, foreclosures, etc. are not a western NC anomaly and will not get "better" without jobs and growth, that pays decent middle class income(s).
My 50 Cts...
GL, mD
I gotta say, I think Asheville is going to be hit worse by all the foreclosures due to having so many high end empty homes/lots than the rest of the country. I mean, just look at the Cliffs, they are in deep trouble.
Quote:
Originally Posted by motordavid
Dunno...I would not want to be a late teen or early adult trying to find employment, buy a home, and "live" here. I do not know the answer, but housing, foreclosures, etc. are not a western NC anomaly and will not get "better" without jobs and growth, that pays decent middle class income(s).
My 50 Cts...
GL, mD
This is exactly where I am and I stick to my believe that Asheville is going to run out all the people that are actually bringing anything if they don't start doing something. AND to the other poster, I never said to spend tax money, you did. My only suggestion would be to give a tax break while building or something. Which is supposedly what BMW asked for and Asheville wouldn't give it to them, so they went to Greenville.
And heck, if the city can spend 2 mil. on signs that are peeling, ( I know its from hotel tax, but still) surely they could try to get a few companies here. I don't want this to be greenville either, but we have to somehow replace all the companies that have left. Otherwise all the people that lost their jobs will never find any new ones.
AND to the other poster, I never said to spend tax money, you did. My only suggestion would be to give a tax break while building or something. Which is supposedly what BMW asked for and Asheville wouldn't give it to them, so they went to Greenville.
I meant no disrespect. Incentives are "taxpayer dollars." A government is run by tax dollars, so giving up any of the potential revenue to encourage business means that the revenue is lost - taxpayers often have to make that difference up in other ways.
I worked for government for over 25 years and saw this time and time again. Incentives were given, the budget suffered, sales taxes or property taxes were raised to make up the difference, and many times the businesses left after the end of the incentives!
Personally, I think that we are seeing the beginning of a major structural change in our economy. Companies are taking advantage of this long drawn out recession to cut their costs. As a result most recent increases in company profits have been due to cost cutting measures and not increased sales. Manufacturing companies are busily installing new computerized robotic assembly lines to replace the legions of employees that used to do the same work. So even when the economic recovery does start to pick up steam the old jobs won't be there anymore. Sure there'll be a few hourly wages jobs like the extra 100 at Continental Brake in Fletcher, Ethan Allen in Old Fort, and Arvado in Weaverville but nothing to raise a family on. Our old manufacturing economy has moved to Mexico and China so we're left with a major service industry and the future seems to belong to hi-tech. Face it, you can't have an economy based on a nation of consumers buying Chinese trinkets--you have to make something to sell to somebody else too.
So the real question is will Asheville be able to shed its image as a tourism/retiree destination or as John asks does it really want to? I really don't see a lot of action from the powers that be, to move away from the status quo. Of course this really isn't a good time to be trying to bring in new companies who themselves are struggling to make it through the recession. I'm afraid that the sons and daughters of the area had better look outside the area for a future unless they are happy working hourly for low wages. This has been the story for several generations. My father left Appalachia after WWII to avoid the traditional mining and farming jobs that left his brothers and sisters scratching out a living. Americans have a national history based on moving elsewhere when opportunities close to home bottom out so maybe now is the time for them to embrace that tradition. I know that may sound harsh but reality often is.
I agree completely with Saucy, for years it was jobs only for the tourist industry or building for wealthy vacation properties. Someone mentioned that we would not want industry coming in here because it would hurt our beautiful landscapes. If you look around, that has already happened by over building homes that some people are only in maybe two weeks a year. As a mother of two college kids that went to school up here, and renting an apartment to countless kids in the last 5 or 6 years, there is no way they could live here to make a decent living unless they went into the medical industry or worked at one of the colleges, which are not hiring at the time. We are losing our greatest resource, and that is these wonderful, bright young people who move to Raleigh or elsewhere and even out of the country like China, for a decent job. We need to start writing these people that we elected to bring jobs to the western N.C. mountains.
News flash: Asheville has lots of big, tree covered rock thingies coming up out of the ground, along with lots of beautiful rivers, wildlife, and other natural beauty. There's no conspiracy to make Asheville a tourist destination; Mother Nature made it so, and so it's completely natural for folks to exploit that.
Those pining for lots of high-tech, white collar companies to plant themselves in Asheville will be the first ones to complain about the rash of gated communities that will inevitably keep cropping up, the McMansions built on mountainsides, the horrible traffic, and the influx of fast-talkin' yankee types.
Do you really want Asheville to turn into Boulder?
News flash: Asheville has lots of big, tree covered rock thingies coming up out of the ground, along with lots of beautiful rivers, wildlife, and other natural beauty. There's no conspiracy to make Asheville a tourist destination; Mother Nature made it so, and so it's completely natural for folks to exploit that.
Those pining for lots of high-tech, white collar companies to plant themselves in Asheville will be the first ones to complain about the rash of gated communities that will inevitably keep cropping up, the McMansions built on mountainsides, the horrible traffic, and the influx of fast-talkin' yankee types.
Do you really want Asheville to turn into Boulder?
Amen
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The harshness of reality
