At Home: Balsam Mountain Preserve

Nearly four years after The David Southworth Company took control of real estate development at Balsam Mountain Preserve, the private mountain community is in a markedly different position. New homes are rising across the property. Available inventory has tightened. Amenities and programming have expanded. New leadership has joined the club. As a result, this sought-after community is experiencing sustained demand from buyers drawn to its high-elevation setting, conservation focus and growing range of residential options.

“There has been well over $100 million invested into Balsam Mountain in the form of new homes, amenity upgrades and amenity additions,” says developer David Southworth.

Perhaps the clearest measure of the shift is the real estate market itself. Southworth said Balsam once typically had 20 to 25 properties listed for sale at a time, accompanied by what he described as “very lack-luster sales.”

“These days you’ll find four or five properties available with very short on-market shelf lives,” he said.

That demand has translated into a steady pipeline of construction. During each of the past three years, Southworth says, an average of 35 to 40 homes have either been under construction or on the drawing board. More than half of Balsam’s residents are new to the community within the past three years.

The community has also broadened the types of real estate available to prospective residents. Doubletop Village introduced a village-style option, with homes ranging from about $2.5 million to $3 million, while estate homes generally range from $3.5 million to $6 million. The changes have coincided with substantial appreciation in Balsam’s residential market, from about $400 per square foot to more than $1,000.

But the transformation has extended beyond home sales and construction. Investments on the club side have been designed to make Balsam a more complete year-round community and expand what residents can do without leaving the mountain. This includes a new restaurant that offers three meals a day, a pickleball program and expanded operating hours and activities at the Club.

Balsam has also added new leadership, including managing director Chris Duprey, a Southworth veteran, and general manager Gayle Starke, who previously served as general manager at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove. Together, the physical investments, new services and leadership additions are helping move Balsam closer to what Southworth sees as the property’s long-term potential. That potential rests in part on something that predates the recent investment: the landscape itself.

Balsam Mountain Preserve encompasses a dramatic high-elevation setting in the mountains of Western North Carolina, and conservation has long been central to the community’s identity. Seventy-five percent of the property is governed by a conservation easement restricting development. Even as construction has accelerated, the framework established by the conservation easement places a permanent limit on how much of the property can be developed.

“Balsam Mountain is recognized as special,” he says. “Prospects are awed by the scale of the project and marvel at how this community was carved into the high mountains of North Carolina.”

The community itself has become another selling point. When prospective buyers are weighing Balsam against other mountain developments, Southworth says the people already living there often make the strongest impression.

“First and foremost­­—the existing residents,” he says. “They are so encouraging and welcoming to those looking at the mountain.”

The property’s elevation is another advantage, particularly for buyers looking for relief from summer heat. Southworth pointed to Balsam’s “higher altitudes than other mountain communities, which results in cooler summer temperatures” as a factor that can ultimately influence a buyer’s decision.

For Southworth, the strongest indicators of Balsam’s health go beyond the pace of sales. The community is now just over halfway developed, he said, with no debt on either the club or development.

“We believe Balsam has just recently passed that ‘too big and too strong to fail’ stage,” he says. “Home values are heading into the stratosphere and are owned by committed and substantial residents.”

Development is far from finished. Current work includes raising the level of golf course maintenance and making changes intended to ease some of the course’s difficulty. Plans also call for expanding the community’s equestrian facilities and boarding capacity. With much of its acreage permanently protected, just over half of its development completed and a steady stream of new homes in the pipeline, Balsam is entering a new stage of its life—growing into the community its extraordinary setting has long promised.

Learn more at BalsamMountainPreserve.com.