The Market Is Moving

The housing market isn’t a headline, it’s a set of local facts plus real human choices. We start by walking through a clear Henderson County real estate market update: single-family homes sold over the past 12 months, what inventory looks like right now, how the average and median sales price are shifting, and why days on market is stretching out. The takeaway is reassuring and practical at the same time: the market is still moving, but it’s moving differently, and strategy matters more than hope.

From there, we zoom out to the part of real estate nobody can quantify with an online estimate. We talk about why “what’s my home worth?” is a different question than “what will it take to sell my home?” and why experience, context, and nuance still beat abundant information and AI tools. If you’re thinking about selling a home, buying your first home, downsizing in retirement, or repositioning investment properties, we come back to the timeless drivers: price, condition, and location, plus the marketing and preparation that make buyers act.

Then we bring in two powerful personal finance books, The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel and Die With Zero by Bill Perkins, to explore what money is for, how emotions shape financial decisions, and what “enough” could look like. We connect those ideas directly to real estate and life planning, including building a team with your lender, CPA, financial advisor, and estate attorney when needed. If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment, we’ll leave you with better questions and a clearer path forward.

Subscribe for more local Western North Carolina real estate insight, share this with someone planning a move, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show.

Transcript

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Welcome And How We Help

SPEAKER_02 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 in the queue every Monday morning, sharing with you positive news about your local real estate market community. So grateful to be here with you. Can't believe how cool it is out there. What beautiful temperatures and what a stunning uh weekend uh we had. Beautiful blue skies and you know mixed in some rain there. But again, it's beautiful. A lot to be grateful for and thankful for. And I'm thankful to be here with you. If you're tuning in for the first time ever, the George Real Estate Group's located in Flat Rock. We serve all of West North Carolina and the upstate, whether it's residential or commercial, land or home or 1031 exchange or investment strategies or wealth planning or estate thoughts. I mean, these are all these, you know, there's so many factors that go in and how real estate is impacted in your wherever you are in that cycle, right? Maybe it's you have your first, you're a first-time home buyer. We all remember, for those that have purchased homes, we remember that first one. And it is a big deal. And it is still possible. I know there's a lot of uh it it might feel impossible, but it is still possible to get to buy your first home, and maybe it's more challenging than than it has been. And yet, we're still helping clients buy their first home. We're also helping clients that are looking to upsize or downsize or right size. It's the looking to retire, and maybe they're looking to move into a retirement community. There's so many factors. And then the conversations we're having with clients, what they're planning in regards to their investment portfolio. It could be commercial, it could be rental properties, and how that plays in. Are they done with the the three Ts, the tenants, the toilets, the taxes of and when you have the rental properties? There and there's solutions. And there's options that you may or may not be aware of, and we have these conversations regularly with clients saying, hey, here are options. Here's what's possible. And you might be you're not aware of what you're not aware of, and and we've been providing solutions, whether it's your residential property, and we're we're doing this at the highest level with an incredible team at our office with our staff and ultimately advocating and facilitating and allowing these conversations to happen in a safe place in the sense of, hey, there's no right or wrong as to what you want to do. We're here to understand and to provide clarity for what might work for you. It could be your personal home, it could be an estate property you've inherited, maybe it's family land that's been in your family for generations. So many scenarios that come into the conversation, and we're glad to have the conversation just and talk through what are your options. And we'd love to it's a privilege, truly. You can call us directly, 828-393-0134-828-393-0134. You can find us online at realestatebygreg.com. You can also follow us on social media, Facebook or Instagram. We post uh about our new listings, our open houses. You can also go to realestatebygreg.com. You can also go to George Realestate Group Radio.com. You know, however, we can connect with you. We do have some upcoming open houses that are become that are going to be announced here in the next few days. Uh that's going to be happening this weekend. So stay connected. Reach out, give us a call, stop by our office there in Flat Rock. I I joke, it's a dangerous place for an office between the bakery, the barbecue, all the wonderful offerings there on Rainbow Row. And we'd love to connect with you any way we can.

Henderson County Market Snapshot

SPEAKER_02 4:19

So, what's happening? What's happening in the in the housing market and specifically Henderson County? We work all over Western North Carolina, and we're going to talk about the talking points specifically, just to give you a snapshot what's happening in Henderson County, because it can give it can give some clarity as to what's going on here locally. The sky is not falling, the market's still moving. Frankly, there's been more homes sold in the last 12 months than the previous 12 months. So the demand, even with interest rates rates where they are, the demand is is still happening. It's it's it's absolutely happening. We and we see this every day. There's there's homes going under contract every single day. In the last uh 12 months, in the last 12 months in Henderson County, just for a snapshot, there's been over 1,650 single-family homes sold. The previous 12 months, 1,520 homes sold. That's significant. 130 plus more homes. That's 10 more homes on average a month selling this 12 months versus the previous 12 months. The market is moving. Now, are prices soft? Are they off a little bit? But it's it's not they're not coming down dramatically. The price in the previous 12 months for single-family homes was 543. As of this morning, the current average single-family home price, not including condos or townhomes in Henderson County, is $538 and change. So the prices are holding. There's currently 677 active homes on the market. Now, when we look at year-to-date through the end of July in Henderson County, just for a snapshot, there's been almost 2% more listings. There's been 10% more pending sales in Henderson County through the end of July. There's been 7.7% more closed sales. Now prices, as I mentioned, are slightly off. The median sales price is down 2.7%. The average sales price is down 2.1%. Days on market are increasing. You're you're we're seeing, again, pretty common uh you know two months, 70 days on days on market. And guess what? The market is still moving. The economy is the economy. The interest rates are the interest rates. The demand, though, if you were to look at the the data, you can't deny the fact that there's more home selling in the current 12 months versus the previous 12 months. It doesn't mean, though, that you get to price your home wherever you want. It doesn't mean you're you're gonna see multiple offers, although it still can happen. Doesn't mean your home sells quickly. The market is just adjusting, it's shifting. It's maybe it's you could say it's normalizing, but what is normal? You know, there I don't know if there is a normal. There's always this constant change, right? There's this ebb and flow, the the supply and demand that in the the days on market are increasing. And so, all that to say, this data helps inform our

Pricing Reality And Longer Timelines

SPEAKER_02 7:34

decisions. Your unique home, your unique property, your unique investment property. I mean, all of this comes down to how do we position, if you're making the the decision to sell, there's the three factors that always sell uh real estate price, condition, and location. You can't change the location. You have the ability to change the the condition of it, and you can improve things. And then it's the price. Those are the three factors that determine real estate, and and those are the three that we look at your unique home, your unique property, your unique uh situation, whatever that might be. And we use the data to inform our

Why Experience Beats Raw Data

SPEAKER_02 8:15

decisions. And in the information, this is interesting. Information, and I've shared this, and and this is what we're experiencing with artificial intelligence and with AI, you know, information is is abundant. There's unlimited information now, but to have experience, real life experience, context, nuance, these things still matter. Real life matters. It's one thing to, I don't know if you've you've done this, you've typed in to AI, what's my home worth? Okay, what's my home worth versus what would it take to sell my home? You know, to to and have a real estate professional come out and to make sure your home is set up and staged and properly positioned, whether it's uh from the price to the condition to the marketing, all these pieces that come into play and the nuances that happen to sell your home in today's market. It's it's not uh on paper, again, you could have an appraisal, and your home on paper could have an appraised value, and and yet is that the price that would cause it to sell in in in the context of location, in the context of the condition, in the context of the data. And we love this, uh we love navigating this with our clients, and and we're learning, we're we're constantly learning, we're constantly adjusting, we're constantly making uh you know tweaks to our approach. You have to adjust to the ocean, you have to uh adjust your sales, right? You have to maybe again, these are factors that come into play. It's it and this is where it's real life and it's and it's just the human experiences. So if you're curious about your home, if you're curious about your land, if you're curious about your investment properties or rentals or commercial, whatever the situation is, let us have a conversation. We'd love to listen. We'd love to provide options and clarity that maybe things that and if we don't pretend to have it all figured out, and and yet there can be a discussion. And with our this is a who you bring to the table matters from from our position in in the sense of what we're doing as professional real estate brokers, coordinating with maybe we're bringing in and having conversations with your financial advisor or your tax uh strategist or CPA or your state attorney or your lender. I mean, there's this is where we quarterback. There is football coming up this this fall, but we quarterback and bring together your team of professionals. We're not operating in isolation. We work in concert to ultimately provide you the best information so you can decide for what's right for you. And again, real estate happens because life happens. It could be a really beautiful, positive reason why you're buying or selling, and it could also be a very challenging reason. It could be heartbreak, it could be death, divorce, it could be you know job loss. I mean, these are real life happens, and we we navigate that through through uh our our client with our clients and come alongside our clients. And whether it's the the celebratory reason you're you're buying or selling, or or it's the really sobering reason you're buying or selling. This is where the human element in the this is life, and and real estate plays into a big part of that. So your your unique situation, we'd love to have the conversation. There's no pressure, there's no cost, there's no obligation. You can you can give us a call directly at 828-3930134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com. You can follow us on social media. You can follow our podcast. We podcast all of our radio shows, and we'd love to connect with you there. I love uh listening and I do a lot of reading, a lot of listening to books into podcasts, and uh some of the the books I've been revisiting and and conversations I've been revisiting, which if you'll stay tuned in for the second half of the show, I want to dive into conversation. There's some incredible books I've I've got to read and and and encourage others to consider. Morgan Housell's book, The Psychology of Money, Bill Perkins' book, Die With Zero, and they're they they are incredible um books in the sense of like providing some clarity in conversations about money and and and how that the decisions we make around that. And I wanted to talk about some of those things I've learned learned from those books that I think would be worth uh listening to or sharing with you. I want to share with you, these have been I'm if anything, I'm preaching to myself uh as much as again sharing with you guys. And in these two books, The Psychology of Money by Morgan House and Bill Perkins Die With Zero, you know, they they are really asking the same question. What is what is money for? You know, are we supposed to save as much as possible? Are we supposed to build wealth? And what does wealth mean to you? Uh are you to leave a legacy? What is what does a legacy mean to you? Um are we supposed to actually use the money while we're healthy enough, young enough, or in and present enough to enjoy it? I mean, like how how are these are questions, right? Like, and these are conversations because I think everybody's felt and have thinks about these things, right? These are like these are some incredible books. So I give you that before we take a break, and uh we are going to come back to those conversations. So stay tuned in. You're listening to the George Wheel State Group Live Radio Broadcast here in the queue. We'll be right back.

Two Money Books That Challenge You

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Good morning, good morning, and welcome back to the queue. You're listening to the George Wheel State Group Live Radio Broadcasts. We, by the way, we podcast all of our radio shows. You can follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Be sure to subscribe, be grateful for that. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, social media. We share about our new listings, our inventory. We have some incredible listings, by the way. We have some incredible offerings across the board, residential to land to commercial, and encourage you to go to our website, realastatebygreg.com. You can see that. We have some incredible properties, and we have some upcoming open houses that we'd love to invite you to. We uh and you can find that on our social media. You know, again, encourage you to consider these books The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housell, Die With Zero by Bill Perkins, both great books, but this is interesting. You know, mm Morgan Housel says you know, money's more about behavior more than math, and that might sound counterintuitive. And his biggest insight is that personal finance isn't purely an Excel math problem. Two people can have the same income, same mortgage, same rate, same investment return, and make completely different decisions. And and why is that? Because money is wrapped up in so many emotions. You can it can bring out fear, it can also bring up security. Your ego, your childhood, scarcity, it could mean status or optimism or regret. And we pretend we like to pretend that money is rational, but people don't make financial decisions on spreadsheets. They make them in kitchens, in their marriages, and divorces, and recessions, and job losses, and family conservations and mo and moments of fear. And so, you know, it's uh this is how this ties into real estate. You know, we see this. A seller may reject a perfectly reasonable offer because they're emotionally anchored to what their neighbor got two years ago. A buyer might refuse to buy because they remembered three or four percent mortgage rates and believe six percent is somehow wrong. Maybe an investor may hold a property too long because selling feels like admitting the investment wasn't perfect, and so the psychology matters. And this is also the goal isn't necessarily maximizing wealth, and this is this might be this is can it can can get into our assumptions, right? More money equals better financial outcome, but Household asks us to think about what is enough. And so if you have a hundred thousand dollars and you desperately need two hundred thousand, and then you get to two hundred, and then suddenly you need four hundred. It's just this this finish line, the goal piece pieces keep moving. At some point, wealth accumulation can become a game where nobody ever tells you you've won. And so this is where the the goal this is where it's dangerous, right? If the goal is simply more, you can be you can people find themselves sacrificing time with their kids, their health, their relationships, their experiences, their generosity, and even their peace. And and technically on paper maybe they could become wealthier, but this is where and this is why Die With Zero, the book Die With

Die With Zero And Memory Dividends

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Zero, can can make sense. This is Die with Zero does not mean be irresponsible, and this is and it can and the title can sound reckless, but he's not saying spend everything today. He's saying don't accidentally save your entire life for a future version of yourself who may not be able to enjoy it. One of my favorite lines is if money's not made you happy, you've never given enough of it away. Here's the thing giving being generous, giving your your money away. And again, this is not being reckless or irresponsible. This is this is where why do we assume the best time to enjoy our money is always later? You know, at forty you may have money, energy, and young children. At sixty you may have more money but less energy. At eighty, you may even have more money but but fewer options. So money has different utility at different ages, and there's and there are these experiences that have expiration dates. You know, not not every experience can simply be postponed. You can't I mean you can you can go visit Italy at 75 but but taking your ten year old child or grandchild to Italy is only available for a smare small very small window of time. You can hike a mountain later in life, but your physical ability may change. You can always buy another dinner, but you cannot recreate a particular birthday, summer, or anniversary, or or season of life. And so some opportunities have an expiration date even when money doesn't. The thing is, money can sit in an account for 30, 40 years. Your kids aren't gonna stay twelve for thirty years, and that's that's where you can create memories and experiences. And this is Perkins talks about experiences that continue to pay us a long, long after we've purchased them. And and you can take the family trip. The trip might last a week, but you get the memories, the stories, the pictures, kids talk about it later. It becomes part of your history, and so the return is much bigger than the week itself. And and some investments pay dividends in dollars, and then some investments pay dividends in memories, and they both have value, and there's that balance, right? They and this is where and then here's the thing about real estate you know, someone that built that dream home, that retirement home, but maybe it's not serving them anymore, or or maybe your real estate's not what it needs to be for this season of life, and and the memory again, you've this home created memories. Maybe it's your investment portfolio and you have five rentals. Uh you maybe the here's the question at some point though, when is the resources in the investments you've you've created serving and and helping you, you know, giving, you know, could you give it away? Could you give to your family? You know, real estate is one of the most tremendous wealth-building tools, but the point of owning real estate isn't simply to just own more real estate. And so, and this is where it comes down to what is how do you define wealth? How do you define the benefits of money? And this is where Houseell argues that one of the biggest greatest benefits of money is actually to have freedom and control over your time. Not not the Rolex, not the car, not even the house, and but being able to wake up and say what happens next and and and your freedom that you get to decide to do. Again, wealth Truly buys freedom and independence. And you don't have to have that job, or you don't have to take that client. Or you can spend the week off with your family. You can help someone else. You can give. Freedom's invisible but enormously valuable. And so, and this is where the danger in waiting for the perfect financial situations. I'll wait. Or I'll retire once the market gets better. You know, I'll start that business when I have enough savings. And and absolutely, waiting is absolutely the right thing to do and the most responsible thing to do. And sometimes waiting can become a permanent lifestyle. So don't get caught into that, right? And so the these are just I hope I might cause you to ask some questions. Whose life are you living? What life do I want to live? What am I actually saving for? At what point would you say I have enough? Are you postponing something important because you're waiting for the perfect financial moment? And and what experience today could produce memory dividends for the next twenty years? Take take the grandkid on the trip, go to the concert, go experience life. And again, you can't take any of this with you anyways, other you can't take the fine the money when you when you pass. And so you know how is your money serving you and how how can the impact you make in the community through giving, how can you make a difference in your kids' lives? And again, this is not about being irresponsible, this is about being thoughtful with your finances, and again, just some and then we have these conversations about how your resources can serve your family now, and then real estate. This is all of this is connected, and this is where these conversations are we're having, and and your philosophy of money, the psychology of money, you know, what you want to do with your money, and and how real estate we have these conversations, whether it's your investment properties, your rental properties, your personal home, and there's so much more that we discuss than oh, you know, here's the five you know, this is not five tips of selling your houses. How does this impact the way you want to live your life and the life you want to live and whose story you're living?

Real Estate For Freedom And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 24:33

I mean and how would you treat your time because time ultimately is the the most valuable resource that we all have. And so if we can support you anyway, whether that's how real estate impacts your life, how your investment properties, how maybe you might not think there's other options or a better way. I mean, how we're incorporating tax strategies, how we're taking advantage of 1031 exchange options, how we're helping our clients, you know, downsize or right size. I mean, it's about what life is happening. It could be more important to be available and and have the freedom to be with the grandkids or or for financial reasons. You need the downsize. There's so many scenarios, and we and it's truly a privilege to sit across the table and and and we have these real life conversations with our clients that we can help navigate and provide clarity and information and ultimately support in a path forward that you can decide what's right for you. And and if that means selling, great. And if it doesn't mean selling, that's great too. It's it's providing the information for our clients so they can decide what's right for them. And we love bringing some context and some clarity. We love serving our community, we love helping our clients with real estate. It happens to be real estate, but it's so much more, right? It's this it's the relationships, it's the emotional uh and and psychological component of of all this. That that really, if you get dive into it, it's it's uh you know, you if you've had that thought, I want to sell my house or I want to buy something or I want to whatever it might be in in the the real estate dynamic is really just the surface of what you're looking to accomplish and and that we want to support you in that. So we can provide guidance, we can provide information. And guess what? As I shared in the first half of the show, the market absolutely still moving. The sky is not falling. There's been over a hundred and thirty more single family homes sold in Henderson County in the last 12 months versus the previous 12 months. And yet how you position it, who you work with, how you set this up matters. And so it matters who you partner with, and we'd we'd be grateful to partner with you. Give us a call, 828-393-0134. We're here every Monday morning, right after the 9 o'clock news, and we love sharing with you positive encouragement, and if we can help you in any way. Thank you so much for tuning in, and we'll see you next Monday.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

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. Maybe the house feels a little too big these days.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

The stairs a little steeper. The pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go? It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing, and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves. Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to right-size, simplify, or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group. Local, trusted, proven. Call us today, 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.