Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
More of what’s going around:
-Wicked Weed is still suffering from backlash to its announcement last week that it was being acquired by Anheurser-Busch. Check out wickedweedsoldout.com. Also, as some bottle shops around North Carolina and around the U.S. announce that they’ll stop selling Wicked Weed, the Tasty Beverage bottle shop’s owners said today he would keep the brand on its shelves. In an email, owner Johnny Belflower said he had developed a close personal relationship with Wicked Weed’s owners and would stand by Wicked Weed. From the email:
ABI may certainly be a soulless entity, but for right now, Wicked Weed doesn’t feel soulless or gone to us. They’re right there across the street, and while it may not be forever, and it may not be in the same capacity, we’re going to keep working together.
-Megan Shepherd, author of The Madman’s Daughter, a New York Times best-seller, will present a workshop, Young at Heart: Writing and Publishing Young Adult Fiction, from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, May 20, at UNC Asheville. Cost of the workshop is $35 and advance registration is required.
-Asheville’s red-hot real estate market continues to burn it up. From the newsletter of Trip Howell of Mosiac Community Lifestyle Realty, regarding the Asheville real estate market’s first quarter results:
-There were 327 homes sold in Asheville and 510 homes sold in Buncombe County in the 1st quarter of 2017, which is the highest 1st quarter sales on record in the City of Asheville.
-The median home sale price in the 1st quarter was a record high of $275,000, and in Buncombe County, it was $243,450, which is close to the previous record high of $247,000 set in 2016.
-The Average Days on Market (DOM) in Asheville increased to 68 days in the 1st quarter, up from 55 days in 2016. The average DOM in Buncombe County also increased from 77 days in 2016 to 82 days in the 1st quarte of 2017r. The increase in DOM is likely due to more sellers pricing their homes higher than market value, causing the homes to take longer to sell.
-In the 1st quarter of 2017, for the first time on record, inventory in Asheville was under 6 months in all price ranges below $1 million. In Buncombe County, levels were under 6 months for all price ranges under $450,000. Inventory for most price ranges in Buncombe County was lower in the 1st quarter of 2017 than previous years, but there is still more supply in the county relative to the city, especially in the mid and upper price ranges.
–The Magnetic Theatre, the local theater that specializes in producing original works, has announced it is cutting prices on some shows. From a press release:
Beginning this weekend—with the world premiere of award-winning local playwright John Crutchfield’s Malverse, The Magnetic Theatre announces an experiment with dramatically lower prices. From now through November, tickets to most Magnetic shows will be $12 for previews and $16 for regular performances, tax and fees included. $10 student rush tickets, as available, can be purchased at the door 15 minutes before each performance, with valid I.D. This represents a discount of as much as a third off recent prices. …
Not all shows are part of the experiment. For example, this weekend’s late-night offering, Boo Velvet’s The Great American Strip-Off! (which sold out a three-weekend run in January) and the perennially popular Bernstein Family Christmas Spectacular, will continue to cost more. But some shows cost even less. The new late-night lineup of The SuperHappy Radio Hour (the first Friday of each month) and Jeff Messer’s Maintaining an Election (the first Saturday of each month) cost only $8 each, only at the door. The quarterly, open-mic-style Magnetic Midnight (next up Friday, May 19, 9:30 to
participate, 10:30 just to watch) remains $5. And the third weekend of June brings the debut of a new, exciting, late-night reading series, The Off-Off Broadway Project. Admission to these rehearsed readings of amazing plays from the sixties and seventies, with many of Asheville’s favorite actors, will be free.
