New Heights Welcomes Its Newest Habitat Homeowners

The dedication at New Heights on Oct. 1 was an emotional one. Habitat summed it up on Facebook as “lots of hugs, laughs, and tears.”

“Through the day to day of building homes, it means so much when we can all come together and celebrate what we’re all accomplishing.”

Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, on Facebook

The post credited everyone who had a hand in it: donors, volunteers, homeowners, staff, sponsors and community members.

A neighborhood that keeps growing

New Heights sits off Old Haywood Road. Habitat built its first 38 homes there between 2020 and 2023, then came back in early summer 2025 to start a second phase of 60 more. Once it’s finished, 98 families will live there; WLOS called it the largest neighborhood Habitat has built.

The Oct. 1 homes are part of that second phase, and they came about a month after another ceremony there. In early September, four other families got their keys, and Habitat CEO Andy Barnett told WLOS the new owners came from “all different walks of life.”

How the homes get built

Habitat families help build their own houses. Each puts in at least 200 hours of “sweat equity,” then buys the home with an affordable mortgage from Habitat, according to the City of Asheville. Those mortgage payments help pay for the next homes.

Habitat posted photos from the dedication in a Flickr album.

Volunteer, donate or apply at ashevillehabitat.org

Sources: Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity on Facebook, Habitat’s Four House Dedication photo album, Habitat: Featured neighborhoods, WLOS, City of Asheville.