No room on the mountain: Too much demand, too little supply create a thorny housing squeeze in Boone.

• Author: Gentry, Connie

For Boone, one of North Carolina's quintessential mountain towns, too much prosperity comes with a price. A thriving tourism industry, an expansive university, and a growing second-home community that draws affluent retirees, investors, and work-from-anywhere professionals has made the High Country unaffordable for many.

The historically tight housing market in many cities across North Carolina and the U.S. sparked a record acceleration of prices over the past few years. Boone was no exception with the median price of homes sold in the city soaring 22% to $427,500 during the year ended March 31, according to the High Country Association of Realtors. In mid-May, the Multiple Listing Service cited five homes available in the city with an average price of $975,000, says Bill Aceto, managing partner of Blue Ridge Realty and Investments.

"An already popular area became more popular for a variety of reasons, some pandemic-induced and some not, but that has put a strain on the housing options for people who live here year-round," says David Jackson, CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce. "Both on the sale side and the rental side, it has drastically moved the prices up."

Boone is the economic and employment center for the seven-county High Country region, according to a November study by an affiliate of UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. The city has long been a favorite for visitors who enjoy exceptional views across the Blue Ridge Mountains, abundant outdoor recreation and an authentic Appalachian heritage. Its economic base is Appalachian State University, where enrollment has grown by more than 3,000 students, or 17%, in the past decade to about 20,640 as of fall 2021.

Like scenic mountain towns nationally, Boone also got more popular as the pandemic prompted many property owners to shift from leasing apartments and homes to locals for yearlong rentals in favor of short-term contracts.

"We saw a flood of folks up here that were looking for different options for staying," Jackson says. "People that traditionally held on to investment properties to use occasionally themselves or rent to somebody working at the hospital or university shifted and made their property a week-to-week Airbnb rental. That's taken away a lot of our capacity."

Appalachian Regional Healthcare System, which serves four counties with nearly 3,200 employees, feels that pain. "Forty percent of their [Boone] staff comes from outside the area to work. That tells you how little workforce housing there is in this community," Jackson notes.

The same is true for Appalachian State University, the largest county employer with 3,200 staffers. About 30% commute from outside...