Asheville for All

This member commentary post does not necessarily reflect the views of Asheville For All or its members.

A recent Citizen-Times article reported that Asheville is undergoing a “building boom.” It’s not the only one. An article in January included the idea too, suggesting that Asheville has the “fastest pace of apartment construction in the state.”

But how true is it?

First, it’s important to put any growth in the number of new homes being built in the context of the local and national housing shortage. We know that nationally, there is a shortage of an estimated four million homes, and this has caused an uptick in homelessness and housing insecurity, longer commutes with more greenhouse gas emissions, real estate speculation, and maybe even lower birth rates.

Locally, we also know that the drastic housing shortage has led to a housing crisis, with homelessness, labor shortages, and displacement.

So here’s an image that we shared on our social media accounts last year, showing one of the reasons why Asheville has sky-high rents and home prices:

On a per-capita basis, Asheville consistently lags behind any other place in North Carolina when it comes to home building.

Why is “per capita” important? Here’s why:

For a moment, set aside any retirees that end up moving to Asheville, or new finance jobs bringing people to Charlotte, or new students coming to Chapel Hill.

Simply accounting for the fact that our population grows over time, with families having children, and those children starting families, we need to be increasing our housing stock. Millenials are the largest generational cohort ever, and the oldest of them are in their early forties. They are deep in their phase of family formation. So if we want young adults to be able to stay in Asheville, where they grew up—and we also want them to leave the basement where they might be living right now—we need more homes over time, at a certain pace relative to the existing population.