Buncombe County home sales, listings rise as spring market gains traction
More Buncombe County homes hit the market in March, but a typical $454,250 home still meant about a $2,816 monthly payment before taxes and insurance.
Buncombe County’s housing market picked up speed in March, but the extra activity is helping sellers more than would-be first-time buyers. New listings rose 8% in the county, pending sales climbed 20.5% and closed sales increased by more than 5%, while contract activity jumped more than 56% month over month as spring buyers re-entered the market.
The county numbers fit a broader Asheville region that is still short of balance but moving faster than it did a year ago. Across the four-county Asheville MSA, pending sales rose 25.4% to 712 homes under contract, closed sales increased 3.7% to 529 homes and new listings rose 9.7% to 994 homes. Inventory reached 4.2 months, still below the roughly six-month mark that usually signals a balanced market. Dave Noyes, a Canopy MLS board director and designated managing broker, said the March figures showed “the spring market was gaining momentum” as buyers stepped back in and more sellers entered the market.
Prices help explain why the market is opening only modestly. Zillow put Buncombe County’s typical home value at $454,250 on March 31, down 4.6% from a year earlier, with 1,413 homes for sale and 264 new listings. The median sale price in February was $446,167, while the median list price in March was $551,467. At a 6.2% mortgage rate, financing the typical home would run about $2,816 a month in principal and interest, before taxes and insurance. On last year’s estimated value of about $476,153, the same loan would have cost about $2,951 a month. The gap between the median list price and the median sale price translates to roughly $652 a month in principal and interest alone, a sign that many sellers are still aiming above where buyers are actually closing.
That tension is part of the market’s post-Helene recovery. A year-end 2025 analysis said Tropical Storm Helene depressed fourth-quarter 2024 and first-quarter 2025 sales after widespread damage across Western North Carolina at the end of September 2024. Buncombe County’s average days on market rose from 54 in 2024 to 72 in 2025, and the county finished 2025 with a median sales price of $473,750 in the fourth quarter. Zillow also put average rent at $1,731 in March, down just 0.1% from a year earlier, leaving renters with little relief as the spring market creates more movement, but still not enough affordability for many local households.
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