• July 17th, 2008

• Author:

  leahgrove

While the conventional vision of  a second home often includes a view of the golf course, sales in the North Carolina High Country, where golf is rarely part of the amenity package, prove that more and more homeowners are seeking the club without the course.  According to statistics from the National Association of Realtors, more than 30 percent of vacation homeowners want to be close to the mountains or other natural scenery. Only about 20 percent consider a golf course an important amenity.

“With second and third home ownership becoming more common among increasingly affluent baby boomers, the breadth of amenities they want is expanding,” says Will Sears, Vice President of Sales and Development at Echota, the most successful second home community in the High Country. “The most important amenity to our buyers is the natural setting and access to hiking and walking trails,” Sears adds. “Everybody wants a view, and we definitely have that her at Echota with the profile of Grandfather Mountain framing our backyard.”

Despite lagging real estate sales elsewhere in the country, Echota has closed more than 50 real estate transactions in 2008, in keeping with its record last year of 107 closed sales. “The market is still hot in the High Country,” Sears says, “but then we’ve always been a place of consistent real estate growth. Buyers like that kind of security.”

Buyers also like the fact that they’re not paying for an 18-hole golf course they will never use. Instead, the typical Echota owner enjoys hiking on the resort community’s 25-acre riverside conservancy or along its linked roads and trails. In addition, Echota and Echota on the Ridge feature two clubhouses, each with swimming pools, fitness centers and massage studios. The community also has an on-site trout fishing ponds and close access to outdoor recreation on the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the Pisgah National Forest.