This morning I received an email from our President Neal Hanks of Beverly- Hanks and Associates on Asheville home sales including Western North Carolina.

I am pleased to share with you that our June sales numbers will be the best we have had since 2007!  While we may still receive a contract or two for June, I can tell you that our unit sales will be up at least 18 percent over 2010, 12 percent over 2009 and 36 percent over 2008. Our Volume numbers will be up significantly over 2010 and 2008 and relatively flat with 2009. These numbers should push us ahead YTD over 2010 and as you know the second half of last year was a weak one. The short version is that the momentum is headed in the right direction and gaining steam. I fully expect our 2011 performance will be significantly improved over 2010.  That is the good news!

 Asheville Real Estate continues to be strong in July and second home sales seem to be getting stronger. Areas like Waynesville, Maggie Valley are still lagging behind Asheville home sales but are increasing. New home sales are still very weak and most likely will stay that way for several more years. However I feel that will change as home shortage kicks in.

 More than half of the economists and housing experts recently polled say they expect national home prices to reach bottom this year and remain stable through 2015.

We all want to be experts on the future of real estate, trying to stay informed so we can help our Clients with solid advice. Looking at the figures above does give us some indication of what is going on right now. All good news!