Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My wife and I are wanting to move back to NC (have lived in Chapel Hill and Raleigh) and are considering Asheville. We just returned from a short visit and are digesting our thoughts/impressions.
Us: mid-late 40's, no children, middle of the road dems, self-employed and human relations.
Question:
How diverse is Asheville's economy? We currently live on Cape Cod (I am from Georgia, my wife from Cape Cod), and want to move to an area with a healthier economy. Cape Cod survives on a tourist service economy. The result is extreme wealth, real estate agents, builders, landscapers and a lot of very obnoxious people on vacation. During the off-season, it's quite nice, but people just scrap together a living. Unless you are a doctor, lawyer or have a government job, or willing to spend your life commuting, there is not much interest or opportunity. Despite it's beauty, we find it fairly boring.
I know Asheville, and the mountains in general, are tourist destinations, and obviously there is a huge service base that caters to tourism. My question is if tourism dominates life in Asheville, and how it affects the local economy? Is it crazy in the summer and dead in the off-season?
Thank you for your comments.
employment and environment sound similar. Make it while you can in the tourist season and be glad when the tourist have left and you settle in and do what you do. full time employment providing goods and services year round would be good if you can find it.
My wife and I are wanting to move back to NC (have lived in Chapel Hill and Raleigh) and are considering Asheville. We just returned from a short visit and are digesting our thoughts/impressions.
Us: mid-late 40's, no children, middle of the road dems, self-employed and human relations.
Question:
How diverse is Asheville's economy? We currently live on Cape Cod (I am from Georgia, my wife from Cape Cod), and want to move to an area with a healthier economy. Cape Cod survives on a tourist service economy. The result is extreme wealth, real estate agents, builders, landscapers and a lot of very obnoxious people on vacation. During the off-season, it's quite nice, but people just scrap together a living. Unless you are a doctor, lawyer or have a government job, or willing to spend your life commuting, there is not much interest or opportunity. Despite it's beauty, we find it fairly boring.
I know Asheville, and the mountains in general, are tourist destinations, and obviously there is a huge service base that caters to tourism. My question is if tourism dominates life in Asheville, and how it affects the local economy? Is it crazy in the summer and dead in the off-season?
Thank you for your comments.
Yes, yes, and yes ..... although the "off season" is not as "off" as the Cape, it is still dead in the off season (Nov to March), ice and snow if you want that. Not many jobs, the real estate market is in the tank. I've highlighted everything about the Asheville/mountain areas that are exactly what you have and don't want Exception: many builders there have gone belly up and some developments are in foreclosure. Landscapers are everywhere and predominantly from "outside the US borders". The mountains are a retirement area, and unless you are ready to retire, doesn't sound like it would be for you. Cost of living is a lot lower than the Cape/northeast in general, but income in the mountains is relative. Remember, it's still Appalachia. Therefore, you have to depend on high earners if you are self employed in order to make a reasonable living. And many of the high earners, wealthy retireds, are snowbirds with winter homes in FL.
I would, however, look at the Winston Salem area for more opportunities and a better economic outlook. You can always visit the mountains from there.
Thank you for your response. Very helpful. I suppose any place of great beauty will have its share of tourists. It sounds very similar, yet maybe a bit less severe than then Cape because of the longer season. Does UNC Asheville have a large impact on the town??
By the way, what's up with the tatoo parade downtown? Pretty scrappy bunch dominating the downtown scene. Are they all students at UNCA, or just hanging out?? We were aggressively approached by several bums (probably with college degrees). We didn't expect the extent of it.
Funny you should mention Winston, as it is another place we are considering. We spent a couple days there after Asheville and, again, we are still digesting. (Unfortunately we spent 6 hrs waiting in the emergency room at Baptist, lesson: do not get sick while on the road).
While Winston-Salem has some nice neighborhoods and has obviously invested ALOT in the arts and downtown, we left feeling like it is kind of a blah place sandwiched between 2 huge highways. I wonder if we wouldn't get tired of it in a few years??
We want to find a place that we can invest our lives in, (we are mid-late 40's). A place where we will want to stay and become part of the community. I have lived enough places to know that the most important thing to making a happy home of a place is people and friends. It would be nice to find such a place with a diverse economy to keep it fairly healthy year-round and survive tough times. A small city with a good college. My wife wants to be within a day's drive to Cape Cod to visit family.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Thank you for your response. Very helpful. I suppose any place of great beauty will have its share of tourists. It sounds very similar, yet maybe a bit less severe than then Cape because of the longer season. Does UNC Asheville have a large impact on the town??
By the way, what's up with the tatoo parade downtown? Pretty scrappy bunch dominating the downtown scene. Are they all students at UNCA, or just hanging out?? We were aggressively approached by several bums (probably with college degrees). We didn't expect the extent of it.
Funny you should mention Winston, as it is another place we are considering. We spent a couple days there after Asheville and, again, we are still digesting. (Unfortunately we spent 6 hrs waiting in the emergency room at Baptist, lesson: do not get sick while on the road).
While Winston-Salem has some nice neighborhoods and has obviously invested ALOT in the arts and downtown, we left feeling like it is kind of a blah place sandwiched between 2 huge highways. I wonder if we wouldn't get tired of it in a few years??
We want to find a place that we can invest our lives in, (we are mid-late 40's). A place where we will want to stay and become part of the community. I have lived enough places to know that the most important thing to making a happy home of a place is people and friends. It would be nice to find such a place with a diverse economy to keep it fairly healthy year-round and survive tough times. A small city with a good college. My wife wants to be within a day's drive to Cape Cod to visit family.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Well, it certainly is not a day's drive to the Cape. I am a native of New England, and have driven from Asheville to around Boston several times. It is a two-day trip. Just about 17 hrs. with very few pit stops. Did you do it one day when you visited? You'd get pretty tired of that if you did.
Asheville is the San Francisco (and not as desireable) of the mountains. Yes, those were probably not UNCA grads, but UNCA students. Asheville is very Bohemian. You wouldn't live in Asheville anyhow. I've lived in the mountains for over 10 years, and prefer anything within a radius of Asheville. For your wife: very little interesting shopping, no great mall. But there is a new mega center at Biltmore Park which is in Skyland, so. of Asheville. Nice there. (I also have a condo in FL where it is always summer.)
If you want to be within a day's drive of Cape Cod, look into mid to northern VA ... Shenandoah Valley, etc. Absolutely gorgeous and no mountains to cross on the way.
Unfortunately, the economy is honestly very bad here . . . very difficult to make a living here outside of health care, tourism, and small business ownership (with the latter being hit and miss, or so it seems to me). Lots of folks want to live here, and with the supply/demand in favor of the employers, it's tough to make a go of it here. I-40 is littered with people who have come and gone after unsuccessfully trying to make a living here. Not impossible, but difficult, and there is definitely a big "who you know" factor to deal with.
UNCA does not dominate the scene here as it is a very small school (unlike places like Chapel Hill, Ann Arbor or Charlottesville).
The tourism aspect is mainly just an annoyance . . . trying to find parking on a Saturday night is a pain . . . but not a major turnoff to me.
Yes, lots of young hippies, trustafarians, and tourists.
Great place to live though if you can swing a living here.
I really don't know how people keep finding all these pan handlers. I started visiting Asheville 7 years ago and moved here in 2009 and I advent been approached one time-- maybe I give off a bad kharma that says don't bother asking. The younger pan handlers probably were itinerants making their way through town. Older looking types are unemployed types who stay at the shelter down on Patton Ave--they make them leave during the day and they head up Patton to the tourist district for spare change. As for the students I think you see more of them waiting tables and hanging out at bars than pan handling. UNCA has a great resold ESP for retirees, the NC Center for Creative Retirement. My wife has taken many classes there and loves it.
As for the tourists, you get used to them. They pretty much stay around the Biltmore, Grove Arcade, Pack Square, the Tunnel Road strip, and the parkway. Even during peak tourist season these areas are pretty clear of tourist Mon-Wed, we just adjust our nights out on the town accordingly.Also we live in Weaverville just north of town and don't get many up here even though we can be downtown in 10 min.
The economy is still in the tank here except for service industry jobs on a seasonal basis, medical workers, and anyone who caters to retirees. While housing is relatively inexpensive compared to northern and large suburban areas, other things can cost more. We moved here from the DC area and find food, electric and cable comparable, gasoline a little more expensive, water and sewer about double, and services less expensive, so it about breaks even.
I really don't know how people keep finding all these pan handlers. ...and I advent (sic) been approached one time-- maybe I give off a bad kharma that says don't bother asking.
...As for the tourists, you get used to them. They pretty much stay around the Biltmore, Grove Arcade, Pack Square, the Tunnel Road strip, and the parkway. Even during peak tourist season these areas are pretty clear of tourist Mon-Wed, we just adjust our nights out on the town accordingly.Also we live in Weaverville just north of town and don't get many up here even though we can be downtown in 10 min.
The economy is still in the tank here except for service industry jobs on a seasonal basis, medical workers, and anyone who caters to retirees. While housing is relatively inexpensive compared to northern and large suburban areas, other things can cost more. ...
I agree with Cofga, esp on the lack of 'approach' by panhandler/wacko gang...while we live 30+ miles west of A'ville, we are there often, and have never been 'hit up' by the depleted trust fund brigade. Maybe it's my ol' NYC 'tude I can still give off, when required, lol.
We have good friends on the Cape: one pair does it full time, the other do 5 or 6 months in FL. Have never lived there, but have visited several times. It is sort of like western NC, but that's really a stretch. The geography is quite different, (a thin cape vs a dozen counties full of towns and mtns),
but I suppose one could put it in the same econ situ, though I feel A'ville and western NC offer more 'to do', bigger land area, etc. And, this is a long way from the 'shore/ocean' experience that the Cape area seems to promote, imo.
GL, mD
I never get approached either. Sounds like the things that the three of us have in common could include:
1) Coming from larger metropolitan areas and instinctively walking with a sense of awareness of the surroundings (and thus do not look like tourists), and/or,
2) The fact we all put random notches in our belts, and/or,
3) Showering only during new moons.
[quote=QuilterChick;20451360], it is still dead in the off season (Nov to March), ice and snow if you want that. [quote]
OFF season???? you do know the biltmore xmas runs like thanksgiving til jan 5th or something right.....the town is bumping then.... the snow and ice will of little worry to someone living in new england.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Winston-Salem
