In Asheville, it can sometimes be all-too apparent that our real estate market is a unique one. We’re a tourist town, a retirement destination, a great place to raise a family, and more – all wrapped up in the package of a small southern city. This can sometimes make it difficult to navigate the real estate market effectively and get the biggest bang for your buck, whether you’re buying or selling. To help explain some of the unique aspects and challenges of our real estate market in Asheville, we checked in with Daniel Castillo of DixonPacifica Real Estate.
Castillo is relatively new to Asheville’s real estate game, having been with DixonPacifica for just over six months after moving to Asheville from southern Florida. He had previously worked in sales and marketing, and was often told that he might enjoy and excel at real estate. These skills and encouragement, along with his desire to connect with and help others, pushed him to try his hand at the real estate industry. And, while he might be a newcomer to the business, he’s already hard at work crunching numbers and evaluating the market to help his clients achieve their goals when it comes to buying and selling homes in Asheville.
To help better understand Asheville real estate, we asked Castillo about the trends that he’s been seeing and what he expects to see happen with the market moving forward. In his opinion, the market has been holding steady, and will likely continue to do so. “One trend that we’re seeing that is holding true is that inventory is still low. A lot of homes are going under multiple offers.” This is nothing new for Asheville, but, while it will likely continue, there may be a bit of a slow-down. “Recently over the last few months, things have slowed down in the sense that we’re not seeing homes going under multiple offers quite as much as they were before – maybe they’ll have three offers on the table instead of six or seven.” Even so, says Castillo, there’s still high demand for homes in our area, and that tends to keep prices high: “Homes are still selling for 96% of the listing price.”
That can make the market seem daunting for buyers, but highly attractive to those thinking about selling. That doesn’t mean that sellers should grow complacent, though, as buyers in the area are still highly discerning. They also have to be smart about what they do after a sale – how are they going to take their profit and make it work for them? Castillo had this advice for sellers: “Be realistic about what your expectations are. What are you trying to get out of it? What is [your] motivation to sell?” He also advises sellers to evaluate what else is on the market, and use that information to inform their expectations. “Try to figure out what’s actually selling. We have homes that are selling at really hot prices here, and have as high as $260 a square foot.” That’s great, but with a high price point come high expectations. “People want those homes to be perfect when they’re coming in. They’re not expecting it to be like, oh, I’m gonna have to change this refrigerator or knock down this wall. They want it to be just right. And those homes are selling, they’re moving quick, but they have to be right.”
So, what exactly is “right”? There are, of course, physical factors, but there are also financial ones. According to Castillo, the homes that are selling at a high price per square foot are those priced at $500,000 or less, mostly falling into the $260,000 to $400,000 range. “Our hottest price point right now that’s selling is going to be between that $300-$350,000 price range. That’s the sweet spot that people are staying within. The people that are spending the four, fives, and sixes, they’re looking at it two ways – they either want it to be perfect or they want it to be something that has a bunch of potential.”
This, he believes, is how the market will remain for the foreseeable future. “I feel pretty comfortable that things are gonna hold steady. We’re seeing that things are still moving, the inventory that’s slowed down a little bit is starting to come back on again. And there are a lot of people that are still looking for homes out there in the area.”
That said, what should a buyer or seller in Asheville do if they want more detailed information about the current market? “They can contact me at Daniel@DixonPacifica.com, and I can send them a really nifty infographic that we have set up. It’s really simply, easy to digest, it only takes three minutes to read all of it and you get all the information for the quarter of the year. It’s really good information to have.”
And, of course, he’s always available to meet as well: “I’m here to help anybody. If you just want to sit down and have some coffee, have a conversation, if you need somebody to go with you to look at a property, anything like that, I’m here for that, no expectations or anything like that – if I can help you, that’s good in my book.”
To learn more about Asheville Real Estate connect with Daniel Castillo at Daniel@DixonPacifica.com or online at www.dixonpacifica.com