Avery County, North Carolina

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $10,960 (15.1%) under the North Carolina median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $61,428 is worth $65,141 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 47 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 985 workers (22.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $26,267. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,303 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $890M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $56,608 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,267, a 2.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries concentrates at 8.80x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.6% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 83% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 52.2% of housing units are vacant, above the North Carolina rate of 12.5%, and down from 53.9% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 83.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.7% of the vacant stock, or 3% of all housing units against the 52.2% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $39,118 can pay without cost burden (~$978/mo), and 33.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 23.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 47.3% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 6.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Avery County award 410 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Avery County shows strong potential for amusement, gambling, and recreation industries attraction, with a 8.80x concentration and 724 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans amusement, gambling, and recreation industries, crop production, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.6% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.