any Asheville residents? questions.....

This place blows

I don't know what you've heard about Asheville, but let me give you this skinny. First off, everyone is really nice. I've lived all over the South and this is by far the nicest city of people I've been around. I moved from atlanta after living there for years and have made more friends here in six months than I ever did there. Secondly, there's mountain bike trails everywhere! This is bad for me because I wreck a lot (at least my last ride). (D) Real estate here is a great investment. USAToday just named asheville one of the best places to own a home for our consistent rate of appreciation and quality of living. Lastly on my meager list: We were named the happiest city in America, well for women at least (but when momma's happy, everybody's happy). Shape magazine did a report and found that asheville women have the lowest rate of depression of any other city in america. Art News or some other art magazine named Asheville a top ten arts destination in american. We have events going on every weekend ran by people who really take pride in our community. I can go on and on, but it was one of the best decisions my wife and I made and I'll talk for days to covince people of the same.

Good Luck!

I've already gathered that the riding, both road and mtn is amazing. I've only been as close as Charlotte, many years ago , and thought it looked like beautiful country.

My wife and I are both musicians, (I'm a recording engineer as well and do some touring) and we are desperately ready to get out of So. Cal. (born and raised) It's insane here, the riding is drying up as the million dollar tract homes go up everywhere you look.
We're expecting our first child and really don't want to raise family in the madness...

(all that being said, there are some wonderful points to living here...weather being first, but I'm ready for a change)

I've heard nothing but good things about the Asheville area, and have had a couple friends that moved to Willmington as well.

I was just looking for some general impressions...
advice on housing, like what area would put me nearest trails.. riding from my house?
what's the traffic like, schools etc.
What's the weather like, really?

My wife is also a court reporter and will be looking for work in that field. I'll be a stay at home dad, doing some music/ film mixing and occasional touring out of the country.

We're also looking at Bozeman MT. and Flagstaff AZ. (she's from MT )

any links to local interest stuff much appreciated!

Please excuse my Calif roots. I promise to not bring any others with me.

craig and annie.

ok, seriously now

If you are selling your home in S.cal then your $ will buy more housing here.However some people find the $ of housing here quite high.
There are many $350-$450k houses selling as fast as they can be built, but some bargains can still be found in the $200k range.Below that range you have to be careful, or be prepared to put more $ into it as a fixer-upper.
Your salary will be less than you are used to making, so expect some sticker shock as far as income goes.
The weather is WET and humid as we have had much more rain over the past two years. I have not taken my winter "mud" tires off. It is very lush,though and as for me i prefer the green dense forest and good traction instead of loose scree and sand.
Winters are not bad, a little snow but you can get around easily and can ride year round with the proper gear.
Most of the school districts are good with Reynolds( east asheville) and Tc roberson being the best.( south asheville..living in S. Asheville sux though..Yuppieville).
Do not worry about living near trails, it is no more than a 30 minute drive to trails no matter where you live.
If you are set on living at trails then you need to look into housing around Bent Creek, nice neighborhood..150-250k houses. The school district is Enka i think and is above average.
If you decide to come look around we can hook you up or show you around. My wife knows the real estate quite well and can point you where you need to go.
Peace, Thad

Oddly, I now live in Asheville, but spent 3 1/2 years in Flagstaff and 6 months in Missoula. Personally, I love Asheville most of all. Here's the pros and cons of each:

Missoula: Smaller. High Mountains. Great winter sports if you're into that. Great beers, fun college town. Proximity to other outdoor attractions, such as Glacier, Bitteroorts, Hells Canyon, etc. CONS: The winters are mega-rough. Very little music or culture scene. High cost of living, but little lower compared to Flagstaff, higher than Asheville. Finally, in my opinion, the mtbing better in both the other two places- mostly because of the extended seasons.

Flagstaff: ( I LOVE FLAG!) Smaller. Incredible mountains and canyons. Great climate- some heavy snows in winters at town elevation, great snow pack up on the "peaks," good winter sports, but snows at town elevation melt and drain fast enough for year round riding. Sedona, 30 minutes south, will be 60-70 degrees in middle of winter, incredible canyons and mtbing there. IF YOU'RE INTO MULTIPLE SPORTS, THIS IS THE BEST AREA. Incredible rock climbing, high alpine wilderness hiking, miles of mtbing, caving, THE GRAND CANYON is an hour and half way, Zion is 4 1/2 hours, Moab 8, Durango 4, etc. There are a great deal of "secret" places in Flagstaff that you would be just amazed by (Pumphouse Wash, for example, starts as a 50 foot deep gully behind an area called Kachina Village. If you know the way in, within a few miles, it erodes to 750-foot plus deep canyon with year round flowing water, nesting eagles, and not a soul around...) This is the one place I've been (I also lived in Colorado for a while) that I can honestly say is better for outdoor sports then Asheville... also, there's a very active environmental movement in this area and the Native American arts and spirituality can be fascinating CONS: Higher cost of living than either of the other two. Very limited culture or music scene...I lived there for 3 1/2 years and exactly ONE good local band developed itself and maybe 5 good regional/national acts visited- that's pretty lousy for college town. Finally, it is primarily a college and tourist town. It's hard to make friends here because the population is pretty transient, unless you're a 23 year old bro with dreads and mad skills, or at least can act like some form of snob like that...it's just not that friendly of a place, in my experience.

Asheville: (I REALLY LOVE IT HERE!) Friendly people. Great mountains. A live, vibrant music and arts scene- this cannot be emphasized enough. Over the course of the next month, in this town of less than 200,000, at just one single venue, Sonic Youth, Blondie, Gomez, and several other acts will be playing. Bluegrass and folk music is so thick it gets in the damn way. Festivals are everywhere, with super fun acts...some great musicians like Martin Sexton, Ziggy Marley, Doc Watson, Dell McCoury, Gillian Welch, etc. can be counted to play here at least once a year , for the acoustic acts sometime 3-4 times a year, and that's not even counting the large number of mega-quality local acts... galleries abound with crafts being prevalent. Whatever your leanings, there is a spirtual communtiy that can meet your needs...even if those are none at all. GREAT BEERS. Better road riding than either of the other two. Mountain biking is at the same level as Flagstaff, except for much of the summer it's often too muddy to ride, but I also was riding in jersey and shorts in December, January, and Feb this last year- you can always count on a few 60-degree days.Good rock climbing, great kayaking, great wilderness areas, Smoky Mountain National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway Again, FRIENDLY PEOPLE. You can find something unique and fun to do every night of the week, if you were so inclined. CONS: It does rain a lot sometimes, the cost of living can be high, and you sometimes have to accept the fact that the rest of the state is super-conservative and you might not like most of what the government outside of Asheville does(unless you lean that way yourself- I don't)- but our local political scene is great for it's diversity and the fact that we do all, eventually, get along in the end.

OK that's enough for now. Flag and Asheville are both GREAT Places- FLag does have better weather and is more astonshing outdoors wise, but Asheville is almost at it's level outdoors-wise and has a better vibe. Peace.

This is another first!

No one bothered to mention the Biltmore House & Gardens (thank you) or the Blue Ridge Parkway. Those are the #1 and #2 most requested directions. #3 is the mall.

My buddy works for the Big House and often has to do corporate stints at the Chamber of Commerce. I'll sometimes ask him something about the area (like a typical tourist would ask) and get a response like: I don't know. He repeats local statistics so much - he can't recall anything after 5 p.m..



The Chamber has some great leads though:

http://www.ashevillechamber.org/

Here's a smattering of other things:

http://www.citizen-times.com/

http://www.mtbikewnc.com/

http://www.mountainxpress.com/index.php