The accolades keep rolling in for this tourist mecca and college town. Asheville is one of the Top 25 metros for business and careers (Forbes), Top 10 places to live (Yahoo! Real Estate), and Top 10 adventure towns (National Geographic Adventure). So how can such a highly acclaimed place, with an unemployment rate that's lower than the state and national average, be No. 1 in the rise in foreclosures? The long recession and the weak recovery have pushed many ordinary people to the financial brink, local real estate agents and attorneys told the Asheville Citizen-Times this past August.
The same forces appear to be at work for all the Top 10 metros, says Rick Sharga, senior vice president with RealtyTrac in Irvine, Calif. "I suspect it has a lot to do with the local economies."
