I don’t know her, but just a quick search on Zillow, showed 350k will get between 1500-1700 square feet. I’m out, I thought Jersey was expensive!
Yep. Asheville's by and large a better vacation or retirement destination than a permanent residence. Still easy to get to from areas in the state with lower taxes and much stronger job markets. Although prime-location housing prices are really shooting up in those areas as well. But their continued build-out isn't geographically restricted like Asheville is. Plenty of land left.
However, the highly educated folks with a lotta $$ still want an easy work commute, preferably without having to pay for daily drives up and down the few toll highways that make living further out from the higher education/tech centers more tolerable. And they want their kids to live in more progressive counties that value/are willing to fund better public school systems than would typically be found in the politically "red" parts of the State.