Working in Asheville area. What town to live in? (Henderson: apartment, lease)

[Wayward Son]

I'll be coming up that way to see for myself but I'd like to get some starting points to visit. I'll be transferring up to NC for work and I will be mainly in the Asheville area. So, I don't think I want to live in Asheville. Any suggestions for a nice town to move to would be great.

As for my ideal area/town to move:

- Looking to rent anything but a trailer for about 750 - 800 month. 1 Bedroom.
- About 30 min drive to Asheville. If it's a bit longer, no big deal.
- I'd like to be closer to GA, since my family is in the Blairsville area.
- A middle class area
- The size of the town doesn't matter but I am a 34 year old single guy, so I'll be wanting to date obviously. Wondering what the dating scene is like, from a local's viewpoint.
- School's and such don't matter, no kids.

I guess that's pretty much it. Figure it will be easier when I go up there to look around. But like I said, I'd like to have some specific areas to check out based off some suggestions.

[saucystargazer]

I'm answering based on the greater asheville area, because there really isn't any other city in WNC, 30 minutes from asheville that's not mostly retirees with a distinct "middle class". The only one that might come close is Hendersonville. Why the hate for living in asheville though?

1)If you are looking for an apartment, thats doable. A House? Pushing it.
2)See initial response.
3)About 2 or so hours away from Asheville. My sister is in Gainsville which takes 3.
4)See 2.
5)There really is no dating scene in the area, but again the reason i say asheville is because it is the only place that has a small one. The vast majority of 21-55 can not make it living in asheville and if any of them try to come back, by the time they do, they are already married and with kids. Now if you are gay, disregard that, because there is a huge glbt scene here. The only other real scene it has is a retirement scene.

[gigimac]

Dear Wayward,
I think when you combine proximity to Asheville and Blairsville GA, then Brevard NC would probably be a good bet. Now, it is a small town, altho music is important there because of Brevard College's emphasis on music, as well as the town has a music organization that, for example, is putting on a big festival Memorial Day weekend that includes concerts. It's a good 40 minutes, I guess, to Asheville, you can go back roads all the way or jump over to the freeway near Hendersonville. And to get to Blairsville would be just about ideal, go west in NC a little ways, then drop down into Georgia, and then proceed west again to your hometown.

Now, Brevard is surrounded by the most beautiful national forest, the entryway to the park is just before you come into Brevard from Asheville, and there's a bunch of waterfalls up there, and if you keep going up the hill, you'll wind up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Pisgah Inn is a nice place for lunch. I know NOTHING about the dating scene (someone may even jump all over my post and say DON'T GO THERE), but I'm sure you'll make friends and figure all that out once you get a place to rent, and the money you want to spend, you will find something really good in Brevard, since it is a little out of the way and small. As for middle class, there are plenty of professors living in Brevard, shop owners, realtors, so finding the right neighborhood will not be a big deal.

So, when you come up here, go through Brevard, stop and get oriented, pick up the newspaper and check out a few homes for rent and neighborhoods, walk in the downtown area where some shops are, go over on the college grounds, try to find out when the next outdoor concert is. And BE SURE to go up the road into Pisgah National Forest... after you turn left into there leaving out of Brevard, on the right is the ranger station and there's a very nice little trail back in there, and then just a little further up the road on the right is Looking Glass Waterfalls, people pull over there and take pictures and all that stuff.

But I gotta tell you, if you want to really live, Asheville is a great place to be, plenty to do, and yet not all that cumbersome to get around, altho you may want to avoid living in West Asheville just because it is such a pain in the neck to come up the main boulevard and bridge into town...but it has become a more popular area to live. And there are so many types of neighborhoods, you will find exactly what you want, and I remember years ago when I used to date, there were PLENTY of folks you could run into to hang out with, pick up the paper Mountain Xpress, it has 50 million club listings of people who share similar interests, and Asheville has lots of music night spots, breweries. And by living where you work, you wouldn't have to drive all over creation in the winter when there's snow! But just saying, after you check out Brevard, stop at Hendersonville, too, drive up into Laurel Park, check out the downtown, pick up their newspaper, and then go on into Asheville, park in the Wall Street Parking Deck, go out the north side, and just wander the downtown. Not far from there is historic Montford, nice neighborhood, the whole north area is nice, and you CAN get a home to rent for the amount of money you're talking in a pleasant area. Hope this helps.
GG

[Wayward Son]

Thank you both very much for taking the time to reply. I still planned to spend most of my time in Asheville to get a feel for it myself, but just because I budgeted for an $800 month max for rent. Doesn't mean I want to spend that if I don't have to. For example, I looked in Waynesville and saw pretty cozy looking places for $600 a month.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease a bit Gigi about Asheville. I know online message boards, hotel comments on various sites, etc is a very small snapshot of what the town is really like. But the online image of ASheville leaves a lot to be desired. Like I said though, I'll still reserve judgement for when I get up there at the end of September to check it out.

I'll be sure to check out the places you mentioned while I'm in the area for a week. Thank you again.

[saucystargazer]

It sounds like you are going about this the right way. Maybe you should look into getting a shorter term/month to month lease in the asheville area and then look around while living there to see if you find some place you'd like better.

[gigimac]

Wayward,
Actually, I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I think you'd like Waynesville better than Brevard. You mentioned they had a good place to live there for not much cash, and it dawned on me that it's really about equidistant from Blairsville to Waynesville and Brevard, and the drive to Asheville is actually a lot easier, all freeway. Yeah, check out Waynesville for sure, and if for some reason you don't like it or the drive, THEN maybe Brevard. If you want to, take a side trip from Frankllin to Highlands, and closer to Highlands is "Dry Falls," great big old waterfall with state parking area, you can walk under the enormous sheet of water, it's something else. There's a smaller one, Bridal Veil, but that isn't it. Waynesville has a good downtown, lots of amazing views from there, all diff age groups and occupations, more folks live there by a few thousand than Brevard.
GG

[RVT]

One bad part about living in Waynesville and working in Asheville is that if you work days, you are driving into the sun both ways...

[Wayward Son]

I know people's time is valuable and I really do appreciate the time everyone has taken to respond. I'll be up there for a week, so I'm hoping that's enough time to really tour Asheville's neighborhoods and the surrounding towns.