Sage -- I was in Asheville a few weeks ago for a quick Saturday trip and I was amazed at how beautiful that area is. It was my first pass through that part of N.C. and I'm definitely heading back there for a weekender or maybe longer. I went to the Biltmore for lunch but they wouldn't let us in just to go to the restaurant.
Lovely area...
MooseMan -- yeah I figued that along the coasts there wouldn't be much of a comparison. 6000 Sq. Ft monsters that are lavishly detailed like these aren't all that common around here thus the exhorbitant price. You can buy a 3500 Sq Ft home with a walk-out basement (so add a few hundred feet to the base) for anywhere from $300K to $450K depending on the neighborhood.
Pip -- I suspect we don't get as much snow as you get in Sweeden but we do get a fair amount on occasion. Every once in a while we'll get dumped on like last December when the "white death" dropped about 25 inches on us. Those events are rare though and we'll usually get the garden variety of 2 to 6 inches every once in while over the typical winter. Not too bad by snow standards really but it doesn't stop me from complaining about it
The pitch of the roof lines on these houses is common around here. In some of the older suburbs maybe not so much but in a lot of the newer construction the roof lines offer a more dramatic effect.