Asheville gentrification pace makes top 10 list

Asheville has a knack for making top 10 lists, and that's usually a boon for the city.

But this week the WNC mountains' largest city made a list a lot of officials and leaders probably could've done without: "The U.S. Cities That Are Gentrifying the Fastest," put out by Realtor.com

Asheville ranks No. 2 on the list, with the author noting the city has reached 50 percent of its gentrification potential and the median home price increased from $125,000 to $235,000 from 2000-2015.

"Back in 2000, Rolling Stone called Asheville 'America’s new freak capital,' attracting an eclectic population of hippies, artists, and musicians," wrote Yuqing Pan, author of the Realtor.com article. "Today, tourists flock to its craft beer breweries, and gated golf communities sell homes for prices as high as $6.5 million — but the quirky, creative characters who once defined the city are vanishing."

Asheville and Buncombe County have seen a building boom over the past half decade, after emerging from the Great Recession of 2008-09.

Lonely Planet names Asheville best in US

While scores of apartments have gone up, an affordable housing problem persists. The apartment vacancy rate stood at 2.7 percent last year, considerably better than the famous 1 percent vacancy rate that city officials termed a "crisis."

But many two-bedroom apartments rent for more than $1,000 a month, and home prices continue to skyrocket. In 2016, Buncombe County set home sales records in numerous categories, including the number sold, at 4,226, the average selling price of $311,386, and the average asking price, which climbed to an eye-popping $615,498.

Asheville consistently ranks as one of the most expensive places to live in North Carolina. The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce's Cost of Living report, which factors in various living expenses, gives Asheville an overall rating of 97.5, just above Wilmington at 97.1 and Charlotte at 96.4.

Meanwhile, wages tend to lag here, in part because of an economy heavy with tourism jobs, occupations that typically pay less than those in manufacturing or technology. Asheville is 11.7 percent more expensive to live in than Charlotte, according to Sperling's Best Places, but the average household income in Asheville is $44,077, compared with $53,482 for the U.S.

Robert Hardy is president of the Southside Organization, a longstanding neighborhood group that represents residents on the south end of town, historically an African-American area. He said gentrification has had detrimental effects on Asheville dating back decades, when historically African-American neighborhoods were decimated by urban renewal efforts.

So Hardy is not surprised Asheville made the list of fastest gentrifying cities.

"What they're doing in Asheville is pushing the disadvantaged out," said Hardy, 65. "There's only going to be two classes of people left. The middle class is going to be eroded, and what you're going to have is the rich or the poor."

With a service-oriented economy, Hardy said, average workers "under the salaries they receive, they can ill afford the price index of Asheville."

Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell said he's not surprised, either, that Asheville made Realtor.com's gentrification list.

Lexington Avenue named one of great places in America

"The Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Commission and the Tourism Development Authority have spared no effort in making Asheville an extremely popular destination," Bothwell said. "We are a thoroughly gilded lily."

He added that successful cities tend to gentrify anyway, even without the sales pitch.

"It’s probably too fast for newcomers and long overdue for people who invested in real estate here 20 or 40 years ago," Bothwell said. "The market will turn around. Markets always do."

To compile its list, Realtor.com looked at cities with a population of 50,000 or more between 2000-2015, as well as examining neighborhoods of 1,200 to 8,000 people. Asheville's population is about 87,000.

Realtor.com "focused on lower-income areas with home values that had the potential for gentrification (excluding wealthier communities that had already arrived). Then we compared home values as well as residents’ income and education levels in the years from 2000 to 2015, to assess which cities were seeing the biggest turnaround."

Charleston, South Carolina, topped the list, followed by Asheville; Washington, D.C.; Portland, Oregon; and Denver. Rounding out the list were Nashville, Tennessee; Sacramento, California; Jersey City, New Jersey; Long Beach, California; and Austin, Texas.

Local residents have complained about the influx of outsiders willing to pay higher prices for houses, especially in West Asheville, once a working class area that has grown in popularity in recent years. The River Arts District, a once primarily industrial area that has evolved into a center for arts, beer and food, is also undergoing an enormous transition.

For examples of gentrification in Asheville, Realtor.com cited the long-closed "dive bar" Vincent's Ear, which was on North Lexington Avenue, noting it's been replaced "by a high-priced eatery." Realtor.com also cited the River Arts District, noting that the city of Asheville commissioned a report in 2014 that described the area as "in the middle phase of gentrification,” with two dozen artists displaced that year after their buildings were closed because of fire hazards.

The author interviewed photographer Jeremy Russell, among those who had to move.

“Some artists definitely moved away (from Asheville), those who are more progressive and pushing the boundaries," Russell told Realtor.com.

Public money for the infrastructure upgrades in the RAD will reach $50 million in the next six years, with 44 percent of public money coming from federal and state sources. The city is spearheading work that includes the installation of sidewalks, street trees, public art, bike lanes and greenways.

Tom Tveidt, a research economist and founder of Syneva Economics in Asheville, worked on the gentrification report about the RAD. He said Tuesday that population data for the Buncombe County "as a whole shows that we are now attracting a younger demographic group than in years past."

Baby boomers, born 1946-1964, constituted the majority of new residents over the previous several decades, as they could move to the Asheville area from larger urban areas and afford a larger home in a rural setting at a lower cost.

Now, though, the area is attracting more millennials, born 1980-1999, than baby boomers.

"Unlike baby boomers, the millennials are looking for a place to live, work and raise a family," Tveidt said. "So a more urban setting is preferable to many millennials. Compared to other urban areas in the nation, Asheville is still affordable, and for millennials with the financial means, offers an opportunity to invest into a growing, largely undervalued, vibrant urban setting."