Henderson County Real Estate Trends With Local Data

Foreclosure headlines can make any homeowner feel a jolt of panic, especially if you remember 2008. We slow everything down and look at the facts behind the fear, then bring it home to what’s actually happening in the Henderson County real estate market and across Western North Carolina.

We share the numbers we’re watching right now: active single-family inventory, pending homes, months of supply, and why days on market increasing changes how you price and present a home. You’ll hear why “the market is the market” is still true even with mortgage rates where they are, and why a 4.4 month supply can still point to a seller’s market while giving buyers more room to negotiate. We also talk practical tactics that matter today, like pre-inspections, realistic pricing, repair requests, and when seller help with closing costs becomes part of the conversation.

For investors and long-time owners, we dig into real estate tax strategy, including how a 1031 exchange can defer capital gains taxes and what to consider when you don’t want to hunt for a traditional replacement property. We explain how Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) opportunities can fit into the planning, and why coordinating with your attorney, tax advisor, and financial advisor is essential. We also spotlight lifestyle-driven properties and why places like Hendersonville, Flat Rock, and Saluda keep drawing buyers who care about quality of life.

If you want decisions based on local data instead of national noise, this one’s for you. Subscribe for weekly market context, share the show with a friend who’s thinking about a move, and leave a review with the question you want us to tackle next.

Transcript

Welcome And How We Help

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, friends. Thank you so much for being here. This is the George Real Estate Group Podcast, which is a production of our live weekly radio shows hosted on multiple radio stations here in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The George Real Estate Group serves Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina, and it is a privilege to share positive news about our local real estate market and community. Thanks so much for subscribing. And of course, if you have any real estate questions or if we can help you in any way, be sure to reach out. Visit us at George Real Estate Group Radio.com for more information. Good morning and welcome to the George Real Estate Group live radio broadcast here on the queue every Monday morning, sharing sharing with you positive news about our local real estate market community. We're so grateful to be here with you. The market is the market. We'll jump into some of those numbers. Uh the interest rates are the interest rates, but we're still seeing homes sell every single day. We even uh over the weekend had multiple offers on a property that was for sale. Again, sometimes uh, you know, maybe a home sits on the market for a couple weeks, and then all of a sudden everybody at the same time decides to to make an offer. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes homes are selling quickly. Uh, sometimes homes are selling uh they might take two or three months. Again, the normal that what is considered normal is adjusting, and we'll we'll we'll dive into that here shortly. If you're tuning in for the first time ever, welcome the George Real Estate Group. We're located in Flat Rock on Rainbow Road. We serve all of Western North Carolina and the upstate. If you're thinking of buying, selling, or investing in real estate or a career in real estate, we'd love to have the conversation. There's no pressure, there's no cost, there's no obligation for a confidential consultation. You can call us directly at 828-393-0134-828-393-0134. We'd love to have the conversation. I encourage you to follow us on social media, Facebook and Instagram. Also encourage you to check out our podcast. We podcast all of our radio shows. You can find us on your favorite podcast platform, whether it's Apple, Amazon, Alexa, Spotify, uh, wherever you listen to your podcasts. Uh, you can uh check out George Rollsig Group Radio Broadcast on your on your podcast platform. Be sure to subscribe. We'd love to connect with you there as well. And like I said, stop by our office anytime. We'd love to buy a cup of coffee or friends at the Flat Rock Bakery, Hubba Hubba Barbecue, Campfire Grill, also Dogwood and Wrinkled Egg. Again, we'd love to connect with you. Uh, we are grateful to serve the community through real estate. It could be your personal home, it could be uh maybe your upsizing or downsizing, or we use the term right sizing. Uh, it could be land that you're selling, it could be a second home. It could be maybe you're looking to uh you know get some information about the market. Maybe you're considering do you sell before you buy? Do you buy before you sell? I mean, there's so many different options. Uh, maybe you have land or real estate or an investment property that you've owned for a long time and you're considering uh, you know, what what do you do with it? Do you and and we have been helping our clients navigate through uh what's called a 1031 exchange and selling uh investment properties. And and maybe you've never heard about a 1031 exchange, and maybe you you well, everybody no one wants to pay taxes, or uh, but of course, there's ways to defer taxes on your real estate. I mean, everybody loves the uh with the tax code where you can uh your personal home, you know, you you and your spouse, uh, you know, it's it's$250,000 that uh you know what you paid for it plus your expenses plus the first$250,000 is tax-free, which is amazing. If you're if you're married, it's$500,000. Uh those are remarkable tax benefits of your personal home. If you've lived in a home two out of a five-year period, there's also the 1031 exchange uh tax uh code that allows you to you can sell an investment property and you can buy other real estate and defer paying the capital gains taxes. I mean, there's a lot of different uh you know options that you may or may not be available. And we've we're helping our clients navigate through all these different scenarios. Uh a lot of people say, well, the 1031 exchange is great, but I don't have any replacement property that I'd want to buy. And we have uh options for that and some potential uh you know things to consider. Uh we work with uh what's called a DST, Delaware Statutory Trust, uh, which is uh we have access to institutional level real estate where you which satisfies the 1031 exchange. You can sell your property, buy into uh these are properties uh that are uh managed by you know large institutional uh groups uh that manage and sponsor these properties. You can buy in fractionally into what's called a DST. And we've talked about this before on the radio. If any of this is curious to you and you have questions, we certainly can can uh share with you more. And again, it's a combination. We're really the quarterback. We work closely with your attorney and your tax advisor and your financial advisor and uh the the that's that entire group there. We work together to help find uh you know options and solutions and and can really walk you through that that path, whether it's your personal home or your investment property, or your investment portfolio, maybe it's more than one property. We've had the experience of helping clients sell large um portfolios and uh uh uh complexes, and we have we've had that experience. We've sold uh you know commercial property. So again, whether it's land, commercial, residential, we'd love to have the conversation. Could be your personal home, it could be a second home. Uh speaking of second homes, uh, this we have an incredible new listing and Saluda, 1072 Corsica Lane, incredible home, over two acres, almost three acres. This property is the definition of luxury. We're on the market for 2.45 million. This property is 4,500 plus square feet, phenomenal finishes and really breathtaking year-round panoramic views. And you might think, well, that's for some people when they hear view, they're like, oh, it's gonna be a crazy uh driving road to get there. No, this is easy access to town, uh, easy driveway to get into, and yet it has the year-round uh year-round views and just an amazing property. It's really a rustic luxury, and maybe it combines contemporary design with incredible setting. It's uh post and beam architecture, vaulted ceilings, open floor plan, and almost every room has the view. Gourmet kitchen and commercial grade uh appliances, phenomenal, phenomenal property. Uh, and the the kitchen, the bathrooms, all everything, just the attention to detail. And would it would again if you know somebody looking for this could be a primary home, it could be a great second home, uh, five minutes to downtown Saluda, uh, just 15 minutes to Hendersonville, amazing, uh, amazing home. 1072 Corsica Lane uh in Saluda. We also have an incredible home in Kenmuir as well. Uh uh and this home is is remarkable as well uh in its own right. And Kenmere is an incredible neighborhood and cut incredible, this is an incredible home. Uh 100 uh Elmridge Drive in Flat Rock uh at 1.325 uh million. Incredible home. Again, we work from properties from the multi-million range to we have properties, we have$20,000 lots. I mean, we help our clients. It's not about the the prices are all over the board. And we we work from single family homes to to land. We have a property with with 60 acres and an incredible metal building on the property as well. 60 acres uh that we have for sale. Remarkable property. And then we have just the we have a buildable lot that we have for sale. I mean, we have we have properties all across Western North Carolina, all shapes and sizes, all price points. And again, if we can help you. If you're curious about our inventory, you can go to realestatebygreg.com. Realestate by greg.com. We'd love to share with you more, and you can find our homes there. You can search actually all the properties for sale across Western North Carolina and the upstate. You can go to our website. We'd love to have the conversation with you. If you're curious, like I am, I I watch these numbers every single day. We just recently passed over 600 active homes in the market. 602 is the number as of this morning. 602 active single family homes in the market. There's currently 260 homes pending, and this doesn't include land or condos or townhomes. I love looking at the single-family uh homes as a as a as a litmus or just as a barometer for for what's happening in the market. We look at the you know, really the last 12 months, uh, you know, we're averaging 136 homes a month selling over the last six months, and and with uh 602 available, we have a 4.4 month supply. And and you might be curious how they come up with is it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? Economists say a six-month supply is considered a balanced market. We have currently a 4.4 month supply, which means technically our market is a seller's market. We have more demand than we have inventory, and it would, if we if we maintain that demand and no more homes hit the market and everything sold, it would be only take 4.4 months to sell out the inventory. Now, if you have over six months supply, the economists say that's a buyer's market. So the buyer's market, seller's market, right? When you have the inventory, when you have the demand, and that's how we gauge the what the what kind of market we're in. Now, one of the things that we've reported on here is days on market is increasing. Days on market is increasing. It's taking longer, uh, which is, and by the way, we we still sometimes homes sell within a couple weeks, but if you look across the county in in Henderson County, if you really look uh really through the end of April in Henderson County year to date, uh we were seeing uh until a home uh you know, days on the market until it went under contract uh through the end of April, that number was eighty-one days, which is actually a 28% increase from the previous time frame last year of 63 days. Now we're 81 days. So again, days on market is increasing. Uh now until it closes, now that's interesting too. You know, we typically see homes you know going under contract, and they might take you know 30 days, 45 days, sometimes 60 days. Uh, you know, we're we're it's really closer to uh it's really closer to 45, 50 days on the market, you know, between going under contract and closing. Um so the average uh from going under from going on the market to closing, that number through the end of April in Henderson County is 126 days. But again, when you're pricing your home, when you're positioning it on the market, again, it's it's not what it was, you know, a few years ago, but it's certainly not bad. And again, context is king. Uh, when we look at what happened over the years and over the market, the market, you know, is and we'll talk about this actually here uh in the second half of the show. But again, you know, are are home prices uh falling? Is are we seeing a wave of foreclosures? And and let's we'll just put some context on what's happening nationally, and we'll con we'll put some context on what's happening locally. But I I mean the the biggest message is this, and we'll dive into this in the second half of the show. The market is normalizing, it's not crashing. Uh a slower market is not the same as a collapsing market. It's again, things are normalizing. And again, one of the there's so many components that go into the market, you know, the supply and demand, the interest rates, the inventory levels. Again, all these things matter. And so it's it's you got to be careful when you see these big headlines on the news, and we'll dive into that and talk about what that means, you know, nationally and locally. But again, your unique home, your unique situation, uh, it's truly a privilege and honor to sit down with our clients and navigate through what that might look like uh you know from a uh a timing standpoint, from a tax implication standpoint, from a financial implication. I mean, there's so many nuances to the buying and selling, and it and it's the house, but there's so much more that's involved. And again, when we partner with our closing attorneys and our lenders and our financial advisors and our tax uh advisors, I mean, there's so many pieces of the puzzle that come together that make it all possible. And really at the George Real Estate Group, we love quarterbacking, we love bringing the team together, we love advocating, we love facilitating things for our clients as they navigate through that process. It could be your personal home, it could be family land, it could be a uh a portfolio of of uh of of real estate that you've owned. Again, so many pieces of the puzzle. And again, love to have the conversation. There's no pressure, there's no cost, there's no obligation. You can call us directly at 828-393-0134. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast. Be sure to follow us on social media, George Real Estate Group. Uh, we'd love to connect with you. And again, we're here every Monday morning on the queue sharing with you positive news about the real estate market. We still have more to cover, so stay tuned in. We have a short break, and we'll be right back. Good morning and welcome back. You're listening to the George Real Estate Group Live Radio Broadcast here on the queue. Thank you so much for tuning in. Of course, if we can help you in any way, we have incredible agents. We have incredible staff, and we're growing, we're hiring more agents, we have incredible staff hiring more staff, and we love and genuinely love helping our clients, serving our clients, and advocating for our clients. We're here, and it's really in a fiduciary pos uh you know, place that we are here to navigate and help our clients. And if you're curious about your home, if you're curious about the market, if you're curious about a plan and just curious, there's absolutely no pressure or cost or obligation. We have people walking in our office almost every single day, stopping by. We're there. I joke, I joke, it's a dangerous location next to the bakery, next to the barbecue. Again, stop by. We'd love to visit with you. We'd love to get you a cup of coffee, we'd love to have a conversation. We and we have many people stop by regularly and uh they they say they've heard us on the radio or they've seen our sign or a personal referral, and we're so grateful to serve the community through real estate. We'd encourage you to stop by. We'd encourage you also to follow us on social media, you know, Facebook or Instagram. We also encourage you to you know follow us on our podcast. You can subscribe to our podcast. We podcast all of our radio shows. We'd love to connect with you there. And then ultimately you can call us directly, 828-393-0134, 828-393-0134. I got my real estate license in 2005, 21 years now with my North Carolina broker's license, and I've experienced a lot of cycles of the market. And really they define, I mean, the the cycles of the market, there's really four cycles. You have the top of the market, you have a downturn, you have a bottom of the market, and you have a recovery. And you never know when you're at the top till things start going down, just like you never know when you're at the bottom, till things start going up, right? You can only look back and say, oh, okay. But there's certainly some indicators, there's certainly some things that we follow. I mean, we we hear locally the the activity, it's not what it was a few years ago, but interestingly, you know, prices have been holding, and it's about supply and demand. But you know, one of the the biggest questions in real estate right now is are home prices going to fall? And the reason people are asking that question question is because there's a lot of headlines out there creating fear and uncertainty in and the stories about the inventory rising across the country, and the the stories about price reductions, and stories about affordability challenges, and and now you're also seeing more headlines about foreclosures increasing. And so, you know, naturally people start connecting the dots and wondering is this the beginning of another 2008? And so this is why, and where we slow down and look at the full picture. A market can cool without crashing, foreclosures can rise without signal signaling a collapse, and uh and home prices can flatten without falling off a cliff, and that's the difference between a scary headline and an actual market context. And according to ATTOM Adams, April 2026 foreclosure report, there were about 42,000 US properties with a foreclosure filing in April, and that's down eight percent from March, but up eighteen percent from a year ago, and foreclosure starts were up twelve percent year over year, and completed foreclosures were up forty-two percent to April 2025. So, yes, foreclosures are up from last year, and that part of the headline is true. But here's the part that many headlines leave out. Adam also says foreclosure activity is still significantly below pre-pandemic levels. In other words, we're still we are seeing a normalization from extremely low foreclosure numbers, not a repeat of the foreclosure wave we saw during the Great Recession, and that distinction matters. You know, during the housing crash of twenty of two thousand eight, the market had a very different foundation. There were risky loan products, loose lending standards, there was a lot of overbuilt inventory in a massive number of homeowners that owed more than their home was worth. And so when prices started falling, many owners had very little equity and few options. The difference today is significant. A lot of homeowners have incredible equity, significant equity. A lot of homeowners have fixed rate mortgages with rates far below today's market. Lending standards have been much stronger, stronger over the last decade. I mean, we joked, if you could sign your name, if you just promise to pay it back, if you could fog a mirror, they'd give you money to buy a house. And while some homeowners are and we're not minimizing the pressure that people feel financially today, but a lot of homeowners could be feeling financial pressure. You got the higher insurance costs, taxes, the HOAs, you got repairs and overall inflation. And while that's true, we're not seeing the same kind of widespread forced selling environment that defined the last crash. And it doesn't mean we're gonna ignore the foreclosure activity, it's just we need to interpret it correctly. Foreclosures rising from unusually low levels is not the same as foreclosures flooding the market. I mean, Henderson County just has a handful. I think we're still less than one percent of our market is foreclosures. When you compare 20 uh 10 and 11 and 12, where we saw forty percent of our market was distressed, a combination of foreclosures and and short sales. This is not the same market. Again, this this and this ties directly into the question of home prices. And so, of course, if we're seeing a massive wave of distressed properties hitting the market, that could create down downward pressure on prices. But right now, the more accurate story nationally is this home price, home prices and home growth is slowing, inventory is improving, buyers have more choices, and sellers have to be more realistic. That's not a crash, it's more of a normalization, that's more of a normal market. And there are some markets around the country where prices are falling, some pandemic boomed towns, some over. Built areas and some places with sharp increases in insurance costs or HOA fees, the taxes may see more pressure. But you got to remember, real estate is not one national market. It's thousands of local markets. There's the national market, there's the North Carolina market, then there's the Western North Carolina market. And here we have the Henderson County market. You have your Bunkham County market, your Polk County market, your Transylvania County market. And then even more importantly, is your specific neighborhood, your price point, your condition, your view, your location, and competition. And so that's why the answer to are home prices going to fall is not a simple yes or no. The better answer is some homes might need price reductions. Some markets the prices are softening. Some sellers will have to adjust, but that does not mean the overall housing market is collapsing. And for sellers, this is the message. You can still sell, but you cannot price it like it was 2021. Buyers are more cautious. Monthly payments matter, interest rates matter, condition matters, presentation matters, and the first price is often the most important price. And so, and for buyers, this market may actually offer more opportunity than we've seen in several years. And you may have, as a buyer, more houses to choose from. I think we're looking at 93%. That's right, 90% through the end of April, 93.3% from the original list price received to what it to what it sold for. And so again, more room to negotiate. And you may be able to ask sellers for repairs. That's why it's important as a seller to get ahead of things and do a pre-inspection and address things ahead of time. You might be able to get a seller to help with closing costs. Or here's the thing: you're not competing against 10 offers at the same time the way buyers were a few years ago. And so for homeowners worried about foreclosure headlines, remember this the presence of more foreclosure filings doesn't automatically mean home prices are about to collapse. It just means some households are under financial pressure and it's real. And here's the thing if you are in financial pressure, you might have a parachute. You might have more equity than you realize. You might have a chance to start over. And instead of looking at foreclosure, give us a call. There might be some other options you might be might not be aware of and don't avoid it. There might be some options for you to consider. Maybe there's some equity in your home to give you a chance to start over, to take the pressure off. And so we have those candid conversations with our clients that navigate these tough situations. But here's the thing our the broader market has tremendous homeowner equity. We have great lending standards and continued demand. I mean, like I shared earlier, we're averaging 136 single-family homes a month selling in Henderson County. And by the way, Western North Carolina, I I don't hesitate. I am biased. I think we live in one of the most amazing places in the country. Our lifestyle, uh, the quality of life. I mean, people want to live here. Hendersonville, Flat Rock, Laurel Park, Mills River, Etowah, Fletcher, Saluda. I mean, these are people places our people, people are drawn to for the quality of life, the retirement, the active retirement. It could be a second home, it could be getting closer to grandkids. And of course, all those things doesn't mean we're completely in a bubble immune from national trends, but it does mean our local market has its own story. And so when you see those national headlines foreclosures are up, don't panic. Ask the questions. Are they what are they up from? Are they still below historical no no norms? Is the increase large enough to flood the market? And the reality is, like I said, we have less than 1% of our market here's for closures. Context matters. Homeowners here are sitting on more equity than they've ever had. And so the question is, what's happening locally, not just nationally? And so the thing is, the housing market is not as hot as it was during the pandemic boom. And it's not as distressed as people are wanting to say it is, like during the 2008 crash. And so we're somewhere much more normal, more balanced, more selective, more strategic. And that's why having a real estate professional that has the experience, clients need more guidance than ever before. Buyers and sellers need strategy, and everyone still needs context. And so, because in real estate, the headlines might get your attention, but it's the local data and facts that should drive your decision. And at the George Real Estate Group, we'd love to have the conversation. We're talking with clients every single day. We're talking about your personal home, your real estate, maybe it's an investment property, maybe it's land that you inherited, all these different scenarios. We have an incredible team, we have incredible staff, and we are passionate about passionate about helping our clients navigate through the buying and selling process. We're here every Monday morning right after the 9 o'clock news. If we can help you in any way, give us a call, 828-393-0134.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

The George Real Estate Group has the experience of selling over 1,200 properties and serving over 1,200 families with their real estate needs in Henderson County and throughout Western North Carolina. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina and near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-393-0134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Monday mornings at 905 on WTZQ FM 95.3 and 1600 AM, or stream online at WTZQ.com.