City hears housing needs assessment: study finds large rental and for-sale gaps, steep rent increases and Helene damage factored into needs

A multi-county housing needs assessment presented to the Asheville City Council on Aug. 26 concluded the city and its HOME consortium face a substantial shortfall of housing across income bands and housing types, with a large shortage of rental product affordable to lower-income households and rapidly rising rents since 2019.

Patrick Bowen of Bowen National Research presented the consolidated plan’s required housing needs chapter, prepared for the four-county HOME consortium (Madison, Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania counties). Bowen said Asheville continues to experience affordability pressures, with median home prices and rents climbing even as other parts of the country have leveled off. He reported the study’s headline figure — a five‑year housing gap estimate of roughly 11,000 units across the study area — and advised council that gap can be addressed through a combination of new construction, preservation and repair of existing housing, and targeted assistance for households facing cost burden.

Key findings: Bowen highlighted these points: vacancy rates are low across the market and especially low for tax‑credit and government‑subsidized units (well below the 4–6% healthy vacancy target); multifamily rents rose sharply since 2019 (example: one‑bedroom median rent in 2019 $1,075 to $1,529 in 2024); rental growth is concentrated among renter households earning over $50,000, while lower‑income renter households remain highly cost burdened or displaced; and nonconventional rentals (houses, duplexes, mobile homes used by renters) also show very low vacancy (about 1.6%).

Impact of Hurricane Helene: Bowen included FEMA data showing large numbers of damaged units in Buncombe County; county‑level damage estimates were significant (almost 13,000 units reported damaged in Buncombe County from FEMA data Bowen cited), with many owner‑occupied units and hundreds of rental units sustaining major damages; the consultant said the study accounted for those damaged units when estimating five‑year needs.

Where the needs cluster: The city chapter in the larger study identified the largest gaps for housing affordable to households earning up to about $75,000 (rents roughly $1,818 or lower), and different income bands for ownership gaps. Bowen said the group’s household projections anticipate about 2,200 additional households in the city through 2029 and emphasized that growth and displacement dynamics both add to demand.

Council response and next steps: Councilmembers asked technical questions about drivers behind projected income shifts (household formation and joint incomes), the potential for displacement to push lower‑income households to outer counties, and strategies to preserve affordable supply. Bowen and staff recommended using multiple tools — preservation, mixed-income and new construction, targeted assistance, and a potential centralized housing resource site to help people find real‑time availability — to address shortages. Staff said the consolidated plan that uses the assessment has been submitted to HUD for approval. Bowen made the report’s full 300‑page document available and noted the Asheville‑specific chapter is roughly 30 pages and can be used for local program planning.

Ending: The assessment underlines an extensive set of housing needs and frames a mix of policy responses for council consideration, from housing preservation and funding tweaks to infrastructure and land‑use decisions to increase supply at multiple price points.