Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello! My husband and I currently live in Atlanta and would like to move back to his home state of North Carolina once our condo sells (we are hoping that will happen sometime in 2011 -- but we'll see! )
We visit Asheville regularly and the last few times have started looking more at parts of town and considering where we'd really like to live. Here's what we know: we like the northern part of town, specifically in the Weaverville area. We'd like a house on at least 3/4 of an acre in a neighborhood that hopefully has a good mix of younger families (we are expecting our first child in February.) We fell in love with the look of the Woodland Hills neighborhood in the Weaverville area, but are wondering if it is full of retirees? The condo we are in now is, so we'd really like to be around some younger families when we move if possible.
One Realtor suggested South Asheville but, personally, we did not care for that area. We do not want new construction and especially like neighborhoods where the houses are older and the look of the homes and the larger lots vary from home to home.
Any insight you could give would be much appreciated!
We've been in a rental in Woodland Hills for a little less than 1 year now. We happen to have a lot of unusable land (my mowing time is fortunately limited). When we first moved in, we met a woman at the Weaverville water district who had a small child who moved out of here into a more family-oriented neighborhood in Weaverville.
We like North Asheville but the noise for us makes us a little nuts. You may also want to look at areas in East Asheville. The agent should be able to keep you away from the funkier neighborhoods. Our own preference is East Asheville, Weaverville (the right place...), North Asheville ... except the noise is crazy here. Fletcher is too cookie-cutter retiree and Candler is mostly too far.
There are several Woodland Hills sub-developments. There are two behind Ingles - one if you take the road by the gas station & Ingles is a slightly less expensive area (houses there are under $200k and appear okay in photos but it just wasn't for us) and the other is off Highland Rd. - just past Ingles on your right (we're in that one). Both are at Exit 21 New Stock Rd. The people are nice enough here and there are families but the houses tend to be a bit pricier. There's a less-expensive house on East or West Baird Mtn. Rd with a pool that's listed for $300k (the house looks lovely outside - we walk by it in better weather - and inside in the photos). They will not get $300k in this market. We've got public sewer and water here. Many places have wells or public water and septic (watch out for the age on those). We come from outside NYC in a suburb and are trying to get away from the noise - you may be okay with it but in all Woodland Hills sub developments there's noise. We're right off 25/Merrimon and 19/23 (N/S route) are also nearby. We looked across the street off Merrimon in other areas of Woodland Hills (closer to 19/23) and it's really, really noisy there versus pretty darn noisy here .
Stay away from West Asheville - it's funkier (we have friends there) and well ... if you can afford not to live there, don't.
Uh, yeah, we're sort of younger retirees (I was force out of IT) but some guys across the street from us aren't. Our neighbors directly across the street are. Our super-duper neighbors up the hill aren't.
If you want younger families ... I'm not sure where to look. I know what you mean about South Asheville but you may want to look at Arden. It's pretty established. Just beware of how close you look to the airport. Also, I have no idea what's spewing from the smokestacks down there.
Certain parts of south Asheville are to be avoided. A company, CTS, ran a metal plating operation for many years and polluted the ground water. This fouled several wells to residents in the area and the chemical is TCE, a nasty carcinogen.
If you like Woodland Hills in Weaverville, you love Reems Creek in Weaverville. Once home to dozens of horse farms, Reems Creek is slowly giving way to developers. It's further out and more rural, but a ten minute drive past Ingles will get you cheaper prices.
You can take a drive across Elk Mountain to get to Reems Creek. Elk Mountain is a magical place that on the Asheville side is loaded with McMansion gated communities and on the Reems Creek side affords spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Another even more rural area I like is Marshal in Madison County. Marshal is a little more old fashioned than Asheville yet it still maintains the charm of a small town.
East Asheville has turned into the big box store mecca with Walmart, Lowes, Target etc all hanging out near Tunnel Road.
Certain parts of south Asheville are to be avoided. A company, CTS, ran a metal plating operation for many years and polluted the ground water. This fouled several wells to residents in the area and the chemical is TCE, a nasty carcinogen.
If you like Woodland Hills in Weaverville, you love Reems Creek in Weaverville. Once home to dozens of horse farms, Reems Creek is slowly giving way to developers. It's further out and more rural, but a ten minute drive past Ingles will get you cheaper prices.
You can take a drive across Elk Mountain to get to Reems Creek. Elk Mountain is a magical place that on the Asheville side is loaded with McMansion gated communities and on the Reems Creek side affords spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Another even more rural area I like is Marshal in Madison County. Marshal is a little more old fashioned than Asheville yet it still maintains the charm of a small town.
East Asheville has turned into the big box store mecca with Walmart, Lowes, Target etc all hanging out near Tunnel Road.
I agree and disagree about E Ash. New Haw Creek has some lovely homes on it and, depending where you are, it can be quiet. Yeah, it's off Tunnel but most areas have superstores near them. Weaverville has a Lowes, Walmart, Ingles, and other stores smashed around them and there are some quiet and lovely areas there (New Stock Road - Jupiter Rd (with some trepidation)).
On the other side of Tunnel in the Riceville Road area in back of the VA is Botany Woods. An inspector said to be careful of some of those houses because they were slapped up quickly but there are some lovely homes there and it's a bit more quiet than in North Asheville.
There's currently what I consider to be a ludicrous home for sale off Riceville Road at 567 Upper Grassy Branch Extension. I looked at the property lines for this and confirmed they are real. Someone bought the original house w/its property lines and decided to chop it up into what I consider unrealistic parcels.
I also think the area around Biltmore Forest is lovely and can be a family neighborhood but you have to be careful there because there is a bad - crime-ridden area nearby. The agent would know and may not say but the police will have the information.
Marshall is lovely ... just lovely. It has a small time feel to it but it's also quite far from Asheville (I should quantify that - we're looking for a home no further than 20ish mins. outside the city and Marshall is beyond that).
Cripe, I was looking at homes again and saw a lovely-looking house off Strickland in Swannanoa. I looked at that house in mid Oct. It's either in a short sale now or foreclosure. The land and view and drive up to it is horrible. The house itself looks wonderful.
Cripe, I was looking at homes again and saw a lovely-looking house off Strickland in Swannanoa. I looked at that house in mid Oct. It's either in a short sale now or foreclosure. The land and view and drive up to it is horrible. The house itself looks wonderful.
This is one of the problems in some areas around Asheville--you have to drive through a mile of carp in order to get to a decent house or neighborhood. This in part is due to the lack of zoning until this past year. It is not at all unusual to find a cluster of run down single wides located adjacent to a beautiful house and property.
As for Woodland Hills, it sounds like bburl must be renting a house on Briarwood Rd, which literally backs up to I26 or on New Stock Road. We looked at one house on Briawood on 1.25 acres and walked away because of the interstate noise in the backyard. The houses that are located on New Stock Road also get road noise there but further back in the development it dissipates fast so you just have to pick carefully. The houses in the cove at the head of the lake are in a great and very quiet location. The lake is more like a large pond but it provides a tranquil setting. We have counted at least 40 different species of birds in the neighborhood this year including a flock of wild turkeys. We did have a mother bear and her cubs that roamed the neighborhood for a month this fall eating acorns and one was seen swimming in the lake but didn't hear of any damage or run ins. In the Lake Section there is a loop road about 1 mile long with only 2 ways in and out so you get no through traffic--the only folks coming and going are residents, deliverymen, and workmen. Everybody walks the loop so you get to know one another.
The community has a lot of retirees but also young families. There is a UNC professor and his wife with 2 little girls and a newborn boy, the vice principal of Asheville HS and his wife with 2 little girls, another young couple with 2 young boys, a family on Briarwood with a small boy and girl, and another family over there with about 5-6 kids. I know this because we live in the Lake Section and love it here, so opinions do vary probably depending on where you are located--check it out. The problem will be finding a house for sale since folks don't move out of here very often. There are many original residents here and this development was put in starting in 1965.
This is one of the problems in some areas around Asheville--you have to drive through a mile of carp in order to get to a decent house or neighborhood. This in part is due to the lack of zoning until this past year. It is not at all unusual to find a cluster of run down single wides located adjacent to a beautiful house and property.
As for Woodland Hills, it sounds like bburl must be renting a house on Briarwood Rd, which literally backs up to I26 or on New Stock Road. We looked at one house on Briawood on 1.25 acres and walked away because of the interstate noise in the backyard.
The community has a lot of retirees but also young families. There is a UNC professor and his wife with 2 little girls and a newborn boy, the vice principal of Asheville HS and his wife with 2 little girls, another young couple with 2 young boys, a family on Briarwood with a small boy and girl, and another family over there with about 5-6 kids. I know this because we live in the Lake Section and love it here, so opinions do vary probably depending on where you are located--check it out. The problem will be finding a house for sale since folks don't move out of here very often. There are many original residents here and this development was put in starting in 1965.
No, we are not on Briarwood Road - we're in one of the nicer Woodland Hills sub-developments. No, we're not backed up to New Stock Road. We're actually three long roads up and away from Merrimon and further from I19/26. We are one of the furthest houses away from Merrimon and there's another development that separates us from I19! It's still noisy here. Maybe some people are desensitized to it. We're not.
We've looked at a number of houses off Reems Creek. Some houses are more quiet than others (outside, of course). But Reems Creek can be pretty noisy, too.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I am legally deaf without a hearing aid on. With an aid, the noise here is horrible and the aid doesn't help much.
Yes, I thought I said I was renting. When we came to look at this house last year the first time, we told the owner it was too noisy and gracefully left. After looking for another week (this time of year with snow all around), we came back and signed a rental agreement. It's not an ideal house (noisy and we have to go OUTSIDE to get to the backyard). In our part of WH, there are two homes for sale. One is the 300K that I mentioned off E or W Baird Mtn Road, another is probably off Wilderness Rd (more expensive than 300k). There are a couple behind us in the other WH development that actually overlooks our neighborhood.
Yes, wild turkeys are here and they are in other neighborhoods at which we've been looking. They're adorable for a while but when they try to attack a car trying to gingerly get past them or run after a smaller dog (on leash), they're not so hot to see.
We opted to rent before buying so we could get a true idea of the area before we spent lots of money to buy a house.
We are a family with 2 kids - ages 6 and 9. We just bought a home in Woodland Hills a couple months ago. We are in the section off of New Stock Rd. The street we live on has many retirees, but I think the neighborhood will "flip" over the next few years as retirees move out and more families move in. We really like this neighborhood - the streets are very walkable and we do not have to worry about traffic and safety when our kids ride their bikes or we walk our dog. We have met some really great folks on our street and I think they all are excited that there are young kids on the street again. Our section of Woodland Hills has level, flat and wide streets - a rarity around Asheville. We looked all over and could not find a better location for us. For busy working parents, you simply cannot beat the easy access to the Expressway and the close proximity to Downtown Asheville (can be downtown in 7 minutes) from Woodland Hills and we're still close to "Downtown" Weaverville. All of the homes are on large wooded lots (we have .80 wooded acres). All of this convenience while still being in a great school district (North Buncombe). Our kids love their schools here (Weaverville Elem / Primary) and they absolutely did not want to leave those schools. They made it quite clear every time we looked at a house in another school district. We had rented in Weaverville for a year after we moved here from out of state before deciding to buy in Woodland Hills. You will find that kid heavy neighborhoods are hard to come by around Asheville. They are usually the "cookie-cutter" newer neighborhoods with no trees and no character ( my perosnal opinion after we searched almost every neighborhood in and around Asheville). We looked and looked and finally realized that Woodland Hills was right for us for many reasons and we have no regrets at all. With the recent snowy , icey roads I would not want to be living further out where commuting to work and activities would be difficult if not impossible. Good Luck!!!
The potential problem is there are areas in this lovely sub division that do not get plowed much if at all. Prior to being annexed into Weaverville, I called Asheville - Buncombe County to complain about the lack of plowing. Now that it's part of Weaverville, I see the same problem. We're on the north side of a hill here off Baird Mountain Road and we're getting use to either not going out or parking at the bottom of the hill and walking up. I have a small Subaru . Hopefully, with a 50 lb bag of road deicer in my trunk, it will help.
Living off major roads is fine. The other day after the snow, I took a long drive down Jupiter Rd. at the J.R./Barnardsville exit and it was clear. I drove it to where it runs into Weaverville Rd. and most of it was fine. Reems Creek is also a road that's cleared pretty consistently. You just learn this stuff as you go along.
We are a family with 2 kids - ages 6 and 9. We just bought a home in Woodland Hills a couple months ago. We are in the section off of New Stock Rd. The street we live on has many retirees, but I think the neighborhood will "flip" over the next few years as retirees move out and more families move in. We really like this neighborhood - the streets are very walkable and we do not have to worry about traffic and safety when our kids ride their bikes or we walk our dog. We have met some really great folks on our street and I think they all are excited that there are young kids on the street again. Our section of Woodland Hills has level, flat and wide streets - a rarity around Asheville. We looked all over and could not find a better location for us. For busy working parents, you simply cannot beat the easy access to the Expressway and the close proximity to Downtown Asheville (can be downtown in 7 minutes) from Woodland Hills and we're still close to "Downtown" Weaverville. All of the homes are on large wooded lots (we have .80 wooded acres). All of this convenience while still being in a great school district (North Buncombe). Our kids love their schools here (Weaverville Elem / Primary) and they absolutely did not want to leave those schools. They made it quite clear every time we looked at a house in another school district. We had rented in Weaverville for a year after we moved here from out of state before deciding to buy in Woodland Hills. You will find that kid heavy neighborhoods are hard to come by around Asheville. They are usually the "cookie-cutter" newer neighborhoods with no trees and no character ( my perosnal opinion after we searched almost every neighborhood in and around Asheville). We looked and looked and finally realized that Woodland Hills was right for us for many reasons and we have no regrets at all. With the recent snowy , icey roads I would not want to be living further out where commuting to work and activities would be difficult if not impossible. Good Luck!!!
Absolutely! I really love that area! It even gets more lovely as you drive out Reems Creek away from Weaverville.
But for sure. Woodland Hills would be a fine place to raise children and I would do so myself.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
)
