Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-05-08

HendersonvilIe real estate is higher now
thar it ever has been.
Also, it is lower now than it ever will be.
Because Hendersonville is growing.
The growth is steady and continuous.
And therefore the rise in real estate prices
is steady and continuous; and it is much
more rapid than a good many people
imagine.
About a year ago a Hendersonville man
took a notion to trace the sales of one par
ticular lot in the western part of Hender-
vile. He went to the Office of the register
of deeds and found an entry, made in 1887,
relating to the sale of that lot. The price
was $120.25, and that sum was obtained only
after various kinds of advertising and other
efforts to boost the price, although the lot
was ideally located. After the hardest III
of work a purchaser was found; and the re-
cords are silent for sixteen years. In 1908
we find enother entry covering one-third Of
that lot: the sale price for that fraction was
SITS. Six years later august 1909 that
same one-third part was sold for $1,000.
Two years and a half later (March 1922
that same one-third part was sold for $1,000.
At the last sale as at the first, the land was
unimproved. In 1887 the price for the
whole was $12O.25, obtained after much adj
vertising in 1912 the price for one-third of
the lot was ST 1900, obtained without any
advertising at all. The increase in value in
Is years was more than 5000 per cent.
Similar instances may be multiplied. In
some cases the increase has been very much
more rapid; and it is not confined to any one
section Of the city.
A little more than twelve years ago a real
estate man in Hendersonville bought some
property on Main street. He spent a little
money developing it: his total outlay (pur-
chase price and improvements was $1,4OO.
In eight years he received from that pro-
perry $1,000 in rents and $4,000 in sale:-
more than 400 per cent. profit in eight years.
The lot where w. F. Cases grocery store
now stands was sold about that time for $3.50
for the 25 foot lot: now u%nimproved land
there would be worth $3.50 per front foot.
About the sam time two neighboring lots
were sold together for $500: their value (the
lots alone) has increased by about 1900 per
cent.
About nine years ago W. A. Smith owned
a block a little further north. There was
some talk, at a board of trade meeting, of
having a big hotel there, and Mr.. Smith
offered the block for $4,000. The project
fell through, but Mr.. Smith has since sold
a number of lots from that block at an ag-
gregate price of $21, $50, and his interest in
the remainder is Sc, 7O0,-making a total of
$28,O5O, which does not include any i'm
provements. About six years ago a lot in
that neighborhood was sold for $1,000. The
bare lot now would readily find a purchaser
at $4,000.
About six years ago the present postofice
building was sold for SIS, 1000: since then $12,-
900 has been offered and refused. A store
building this side of the postoffce was sold
several years ago for $3,OO0; soon after
wards it changed hands at $4,000: not long
afterwards $500 was offered and refused:
now it would take at least 1000 to pur-
chase it. A store building south of that was