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The Obamas To Move To Western North Carolina?

President Barack Obama delivers remarks regarding manufacturing policy, after he tours the Linamar Corporation auto-parts plant in Arden, N.C., Feb. 13, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama delivers remarks regarding manufacturing policy, after he tours the Linamar Corporation auto-parts plant in Arden, N.C., Feb. 13, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

By Jesse Wood

June 9, 2014. Citing an anonymous source, The Wall St. Cheat Sheet posted a story yesterday that the Obamas have purchased property in Asheville for a post-presidency residence.

President Obama’s love of Asheville is well known.

In 2013, after Obama spoke at a Linamar factory plant near Asheville, Bloomberg News speculated that Obama would indeed move to Asheville after his term expires.

“I love coming to Asheville,” Obama said at the time.

Bloomberg News added, “He told the crowd that ‘after this whole presidency thing,’ he and Michelle Obama will be ‘looking for a little spot, you know, to come on down, play a little golf, do a little hiking, fishing, eat barbecue.’”

That story added that the White House issued this statement in 2010 after the Obamas took a vacation in Western North Carolina: “The president first visited the Asheville area during the campaign, and he liked it so much that he vowed to take his family there. The president and first lady are planning to spend a quiet weekend enjoying some of the many things this beautiful part of the country has to offer.”

On Monday afternoon, the Asheville Citizen-Times posted a story on this topic:

“Of course this posting has made some serious waves. Within hours people from every neighborhood in the city have posted on Facebook and Twitter about how and why theirs will the ’hood where the president and his family reside. Some are ready to pop the champagne, others are threating it’s “time to move.”

The blog AskAsheville.com has already posted “10 reasons Obama is moving to Asheville” and dozens of local social media users have already begun debating the minutia of how they’ll fit all that secret service into Biltmore Forest and the threat it poses to long lines at 12 Bones.”

The Asheville Citizen-Times contacted the local Register of Deeds office but couldn’t confirm any purchase by an Obama.