People who are in the green building industry or who own green homes naturally are curious about how the green home market is performing. I’ve compiled some basic statistics from the Western North Carolina MLS to help you understand how the market is performing. As you can see, the green home market in Asheville and Buncombe County continues to grow in size. As resales of green homes hit the market, and as new construction picks up, the total number of green homes that sold on MLS hit an all-time high in both Asheville and Buncombe County in 2013. Regarding price, the data depicts an emerging market with not enough depth to show any real trends. In statistics, the larger the data set, the more robust are the statistics. Simply put, there have not been enough sales of green homes to show meaningful trends. What can be seen is that green homes are selling at a high price per square foot levels and most of the homes selling are in the mid price ranges. One trend that is evident is that the City of Asheville contains a larger share of the green home market than does Buncombe County, even though the County’s overall real estate market is larger than Asheville’s. However, green home sales over $400,000 in the County comprise a greater percentage of the County’s overall green home market.
For more information on green home statistics, contact your local Eco Certified Realtor or feel free to ask me.
Chart 1
| ASHEVILLE GREEN HOME STATISTICS* | ||||||||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Median Price | $387,000 | $272,378 | $387,000 | $340,000 | $284,000 | $263,000 | $297,000 | $310,959 |
| Median Dollar/SqFt | $187 | $193 | $187 | $181 | $172 | $174 | $169 | $191 |
| Count of Homes Sold | 5 | 20 | 21 | 19 | 30 | 27 | 36 | 44 |
| Number of Homes Sold over $400,000 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 11 |
| Green Homes Over $400,000 as a Percent of Total | 29% | 9% | 25% | 24% | 9% | 10% | 16% | 20% |
Chart 2
| BUNCOMBE COUNTY GREEN HOME STATISTICS (Not including Asheville)* | ||||||||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Median Price | $526,753 | $431,500 | $524,800 | $310,000 | $370,000 | $399,950 | $291,650 | $239,000 |
| Median Dollar/SqFt | $185 | $206 | $189 | $159 | $186 | $172 | $147 | $155 |
| Count of Homes Sold | 5 | 16 | 10 | 25 | 21 | 18 | 22 | 25 |
| Number of Homes Sold over $400,000 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 6 |
| Green Homes Over $400,000 as a Percent of Total | 38% | 33% | 38% | 22% | 28% | 31% | 19% | 19% |
About the Author: Mike Figura is the owner and broker of Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty. He is an Eco Certified Realtor and a board member of the Western North Carolina Green Building Council. He can be reached at 828-337-8190, at www.mymosaicrealty.com or at mike@mymosaicrealty.com.
About the information in this report: This market analysis evaluates green built single family home sales in Asheville and Buncombe County from 2006 to 2013. Homes were counted as “green built” if they were Energy Star or GreenBuilt NC certified. The sales data from this report came from Western North Carolina MLS. Buncombe County statistics do not include home sales in the City of Asheville.