News

As Seven Falls plunges, some areas recover

By Bill Moss, Published: March 10, 2015

From a continuing decline in the failed Seven Falls subdivision to strong sales in a new Flat Rock neighborhood, the 2015 property reassessment identified many winners and losers.

Lots in Seven Falls fell in value by an additional 40 percent in the new countywide property appraisal, continuing a sharp plunge from their peak when some buyers paid more than $100,000 for a home site.
County Assessor Tax Assessor Stan Duncan showed the Seven Falls value as he described a chart showing a sampling of subdivisions and their values in 2015 versus 2011, the last year the county reappraised real property.
Most neighborhoods gained at least a small percentage from the 2011 values, a reversal from the drop in 2011 from the 2007 values. The few arm's length sales that occurred in the failed subdivision on the French Broad River in Etowah showed that the value had dropped by 39.65 percent.
A review of assessed values and Seven Falls land sales by the Hendersonville Lightning in 2013 showed that buyers in most cases paid more than the 2007 assessed values and ended up at that time with unimproved lots that had plunged in value by 90 percent. The parcels that would make up the Seven Falls development were valued at $5.99 million in 2006. In the 2007 reappraisal parcels grew in value to $12.37 million and then in 2010 to $56 million. After the 2011 revaluation, the assessor's office dropped the overall value by 80 percent — to $11 million. This year they declined from that value.

Elsewhere, the news was better.
The sale of lots and new home construction fueled a big rise in values in two subdivisions that had been mostly idle since the peak years of the mid '00s. The value overall in Cobblestone Village on Greenville Highway in Flat Rock shot up by 33 percent. Grand Highlands atop Bearwallow Mountain grew by 25 percent.
Mid-priced subdivisions generally saw more modest gains. Southchase in Fletcher went up by 6.7 percent, Haywood Knolls rose by 4.6 percent and Livingston Farms inched by 2 percent.
Established higher end subdivisions with fewer new homes saw low appreciation as well. The overall value rose by 4.5 percent in Kenmure, 4.8 percent in Champion Hills and 1.7 percent in Claremont.

'Encouraging market'

Henderson County reappraises residential, business and industrial property every four years; personal business property like factory machinery is reassessed every year as are public utilities. The assessor's office sent out notices of the new values to property owners on Feb. 17 and it is answering questions and taking appeals now. Appeals are reviewed first by staff and then if the property owner is not satisfied to the Board of Equalization and Review.
All in all, this year's appraisal leaves an imprint of "an encouraging market."
"We're not where we were in 2007 or '06 or '05 but we seem to be making a graduated growth that's reliable and sustainable," Duncan said.
One trend appraisers spotted in home sales is a decline in the market for big houses.
"What we're seeing is that larger homes are no longer as attractive in the market as they once were," he said. "You've still got to clean it. You've still got to heat it. We've seen a strong indication that people are wanting to downsize from those very large homes."
Although Henderson County's economy is often summed up as a three-legged stool based on industry, tourism and farming, the county is actually becoming even more diverse than that.
"I think Sierra Nevada in addition to creating jobs is bringing people that are really appreciative of what they're doing," Duncan said. "They cut down trees to build and they used a lot of that lumber inside the plant. They're promoting an outdoor lifestyle."
Hard cider and ale have boosted the county's apple industry.
"I think our economy is more diversified for a county our size of anywhere I know of in the entire state," he said.