Warm weather, economy are credited
9:40 PM, Feb. 7, 2012
Warm weather and a warming economy boosted sales of existing homes in Buncombe County last month 44.4 percent over January 2011.
Other
 area counties also saw substantial increases, according to N.C. 
Mountains Multiple Listing Service. January sales were up 17.2 percent 
in Haywood County, 35.3 percent in Henderson County and 53.3 percent in 
Transylvania County.
Snowy
 weather kept potential buyers at home during December 2010, people in 
the industry say, depressing sales figures for January 2011 and making 
it easier for last month’s total to exceed the previous total.
“You can’t show property in the snow,” said Jon Corbin, head of The Buyer’s Agent of Asheville.
A
 few weeks typically elapse between the time when a buyer makes an offer
 and when a sale closes and is recorded in MLS figures, so slow shopping
 in one month means slow sales the next.
The
 more long-lasting factors behind the increase are probably low interest
 rates and gradually growing confidence in the economy and the housing 
market, said Corbin and Terry Horner of Preferred Properties of 
Asheville.
“I think it’s a continuation of what we’ve seen ... (in) 2011, which is a stronger market in general,” Horner said.
Sales
 for the year were up 3.3 percent in Buncombe County, and results were 
generally strongest during the second half of the year.
Things looking up
Monthly
 figures often bounce up and down, and both Corbin and Horner cautioned 
against making too much of the January results. “It is just a month,” 
Corbin said.
But both said views of the market appear to be turning more positive.
“I
 think people in general are a bit more optimistic about things,” Corbin
 said, “The (buyers) we’re talking to may have been sitting on the fence
 for the past couple of years.”
Buncombe
 sales were down 17 percent from December to January, but that is 
nothing out of the ordinary. January is usually one of the weakest 
months for sales.
The
 median sale price — the point at which half were higher, half lower — 
for homes sold in Buncombe County last month was $203,250. That’s up 
from $191,500 in January 2011.