Lived there as a young man. My first wife is a native and still there.
I loved living in the coves out of town, and up on the mountains overlooking the town. You get to see the twinkling lights of the city at night, even though you are out in the boonies up on a ridge. Lived in some very interesting places. Shared a house on Town Mountain Road near where it meets the Blue Ridge Parkway. Rented a log cabin behind a house blocks from downtown. Then there was a caretakers apartment in a stable for a mansion overlooking Tunnel Road. Lived in an old Spanish style apartment house in the Montford district. A single wide trailer in Skyland was the white trash place my wife and I had. Which brings up class. There are three main classes of people. Natives, northerners make the two main classes. And never the twain shall meet. Then further divisions between working people and the wealthy/prominent.
If you want cute and stylish and being walking distance from downtown, then lots will be small and expensive, especially in better districts north and east of downtown and most especially on the mountains overlooking the town.
If you want enough land to build a shop or pole barn, you need to get out of town a ways. I like it to the west.
If you want to talk to a realtor who is a native, call Nancy Kern Office: (828) 258-2953
Mobile: (828) 273-2523
Fax: (828) 251-5353
Tell her that Bill Czygan sent you.
Asheville is an interesting mix of old bible belt south and northern money and retired people. It has art and architecture and beautiful natural surroundings. Eclectic and interesting. Like the Pacific Northwest, and NOLA for that matter, it is an interesting place to live. Wish I never left, especially going to Detroit.
If you plan on building a shop/garage in the future......STAY OUT OF ASHEVILLE CITY LIMITS!! LOL. If you like to people watch, walking around in downtown Asheville is better than going to the mall at Christmas time. If you like to walk to stuff, Black Mountain is pretty good. Weaverville, as mentioned above is a nice little town for that as well. Canton MIGHT be ok, but I wouldn't want to smell the paper mill. Haywood Rd. in the West Asheville community is the happening place right now. Lot's of new hippie houses being built, and lots of walkable places to eat and drink. It would be a good place to live if you didn't want a shop. It's an old neighborhood, and the lots are all the size of a postage stamp. Good luck to you, and I hope you like it here. 
