Moving from Palm Beach to Asheville, NC

Next Chapter series7 min read

If you're selling a single-family home in Palm Beach County, you'll likely have room in your budget here: the May 2026 single-family median was $685,000 there and $525,000 in Buncombe County. Your insurance bill should come down too. What you give up is the Save Our Homes cap, some local legal protections and a lot of sunshine in January. Here's the side-by-side.

West Palm Beach skyline lit up at night and reflected in the Lake Worth Lagoon
West Palm Beach at night, seen from the island. Photo: Andyxox, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via Wikimedia Commons

Selling and buying at the same time is the part most people dread, and it can be done. One buyer I worked with was selling a cedar home he loved in central Maryland to start a new chapter here. He had to sell before he could buy, so we timed both sides together and aimed for early spring. His list was specific: modern, an open floor plan, a two-car garage, close to downtown, and a neighborhood where he'd feel at home. He closed in Asheville in March 2021, right on that target. If your Palm Beach house has to sell first, tell me on day one and we'll build the calendar backward from your closing.

What changes for you

Palm Beach CountyAsheville (Buncombe)
Median sale price, all homes (Redfin, May 2026)$540,000$500,000
Median single-family$685,000$525,000
Median condo$279,000$315,000 (small sample: 23 sales)
Typical home value trend (Zillow, Aug. 2026, year over year)+1.2%-4.3%
Avg. homeowners premium, state level (Quadrant, 2026)$8,471 (Florida)$3,799 (North Carolina)
State income taxNone3.99% flat (2026); Social Security not taxed
Homestead cap and portabilitySave Our Homes cap; portable within Florida onlyNo cap; your benefit stays in Florida
Sales tax7% (6% state + 1% county surtax, listed as expiring Dec. 31, 2026); groceries 0%7%; groceries 2%
Heating / cooling degree daysWest Palm Beach: 202 / 4,1663,841 / 1,049
Local LGBTQ+ ordinance covers housing?Palm Beach County: yes, per MAPNo
Nonstop flights to AVLAllegiant from PBIAlso American from MIA; Allegiant from FLL

Prices change monthly. Verify current numbers with Dylan.

The price gap works for you

Palm Beach is one of the Florida counties where a seller usually has room to spare here. Single-family homes ran about $160,000 lower at the Buncombe median in May 2026. Values were also moving in different directions over the past year: Zillow had Palm Beach County up 1.2% and Buncombe down 4.3%. Condos are the exception. Buncombe's condo median was higher, and there are far fewer of them.

Cottage with a timber-framed covered entry and a boardwalk path through a planted front yard
A cottage with a covered entry, from one of my listings. Palm Beach equity goes a long way here. Listing photo from one of Dylan's listings or sales

What that budget buys here depends on the age of the house, the lot, the terrain and how close you want to be to town. A newer home on a gentle lot near Asheville costs more than an older one farther out or up a steeper road. Tell me your number and I'll pull what it buys this month in the areas you like.

Insurance and condos

Florida's 2026 average homeowners premium was $8,471, against $3,799 in North Carolina (Insurance.com's standard $300,000 dwelling profile). The NC average includes the coast, and the mountain counties are rated in lower territories. Your quote depends on the house and insurer, and NC's current rate freeze ends June 1, 2027.

Redfin's last metro report (2024 data) put the West Palm Beach median condo HOA at $652 a month, up 12.8% in a year. North Carolina has no Surfside-style inspection or reserve mandate. Fees tend to be lower, and it's on you to read the reserve study, the budget and the minutes.

What you leave behind: homestead

Palm Beach County's own property appraiser explains portability well: you can move up to $500,000 of Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, if it's in Florida and set up by Jan. 1 of the third year after you leave the old one. A North Carolina home doesn't qualify, so your benefit stays in Florida.

Amendment 3 on Florida's Nov. 3, 2026 ballot would raise the homestead exemption if it passes. If it does, staying would cost homesteaded owners less. It wouldn't help a Florida house you turn into a rental or second home, which loses homestead and gets assessed at market value.

In Buncombe, 2026 bills still use 2021 values because of a state freeze, and the 2027 reappraisal resets them. Budget the price times the combined rate: 1.1232 per $100 inside Asheville and 0.7892 in unincorporated Buncombe for 2026-27.

Income tax, in real numbers

NC's flat rate is 3.99% for 2026, scheduled to drop to 3.49% in 2027. Social Security isn't taxed. IRA, 401(k) and most pension income is. A married couple with $150,000 of income, $100,000 of it from an IRA or pension, would owe about $2,973 for 2026. If one of you has a federal or military pension, ask a CPA about the Bailey exemption and the military retirement deduction. Neither covers the Florida Retirement System.

Heat and winter

West Palm Beach logs 202 heating degree days a year. Asheville logs 3,841. January averages a high of 49°F and a low of 29°F, and Asheville gets about 11.5 inches of snow in an average year. You'll run the air conditioning much less, and the heat much more. The first mountain winter page covers the gear and the driving.

Mountainside covered in orange and yellow fall leaves seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville
Fall on the Parkway. You trade the heat for four real seasons, including a grey winter. Photo: Fran Trudeau, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), via Wikimedia Commons

Up here, the storm risk is rain. Helene's rain in 2024 caused record flooding along the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers and hundreds to thousands of landslides. A flood policy outside the mapped high-risk zone had a median premium of about $798 in Buncombe in 2025-26. The Helene page shows how to check a house.

Politics and protections

North Carolina scores 3.25 out of 47 on the Movement Advancement Project's tally ("Low"). Florida scores -6.5 ("Negative"). NC has no adult restrictions on gender-affirming care. HB 805, in effect since Jan. 1, 2026, defines sex as binary in state law and keeps amended birth certificates attached to the original.

Asheville City Hall's pink art deco dome and the Buncombe County Building lit up at night
Asheville City Hall. The city and county have their own protections, even where state law is thin. Photo: Bill McMannis, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), via Wikimedia Commons

For Palm Beach County residents, the local picture matters. MAP reports that Palm Beach County's ordinance covers housing. Asheville's and Buncombe's cover employment and public accommodations only, and federal enforcement of sexual orientation and gender identity claims in housing was withdrawn in 2025. If local housing protection is important to you, weigh that. The Florida vs. NC LGBTQ+ laws page has the full picture.

Getting back to Palm Beach

Allegiant flies nonstop between AVL and PBI. Fort Lauderdale (Allegiant, year-round) and Miami (American) are backups.

Bright, glass-walled gate area inside the Asheville Regional Airport terminal
Asheville Regional Airport. Getting back to Palm Beach is a short flight when the nonstops are running. Photo: Sammi Brie, CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication), via Wikimedia Commons

By car, Rome2Rio estimates about 719 miles and 11 hours 53 minutes of driving without stops from West Palm Beach (accessed Sept. 25, 2026). Plan it as a very long day or an overnight. Once you're settled, plan on your family and friends wanting the tour.

The straight talk

  • The house math probably works in your favor. The weather math takes a winter to learn.
  • You'll pay some state income tax, a yearly car tax and 2% on groceries.
  • If you're used to local housing protection, you won't have it here.
  • Mission Hospital, the region's main hospital, has had repeated federal safety findings since 2021. It was found back in compliance in August 2026. Line up your doctors early.
  • Condo living is harder to find here. Most of the market is single-family.
  • If you're thinking of keeping the Palm Beach house, the homestead rules get complicated fast.

Questions people ask

Will our Palm Beach sale cover a house in Asheville? Often, yes, for single-family homes. The May 2026 medians were $685,000 in Palm Beach County and $525,000 in Buncombe. Your specific house and what you want here decide the rest.

Can we keep our Palm Beach place as a winter home? Yes, though keeping Florida homestead means keeping Florida as your permanent residence, and NC has its own residency rules. That's a CPA and attorney question. Splitting the year and a second home in the mountains explain the moving parts.

Is our homestead portable to North Carolina? No. Florida portability only moves to another Florida homestead, set up by Jan. 1 of the third year after you leave. NC has no Save Our Homes-style cap.

Are there nonstop flights? Yes. Allegiant flies between AVL and PBI, and also to Fort Lauderdale year-round. American flies AVL to Miami.

How do LGBTQ+ protections compare? NC scores higher statewide on MAP's tally, especially on gender identity. Palm Beach County's local ordinance covers housing, and Asheville's doesn't. Both states recognize same-sex marriage under Obergefell.

Next in this series

Sources

Leaving Florida, retiring, or buying a second home

Where to next

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