Kenilworth was platted in the 1920s as one of Asheville's earliest planned residential developments, and the winding, hillside street layout is still the neighborhood's defining feature — it means view lots, but it also means steep driveways and retaining walls are a real part of due diligence here, not an edge case.
It's genuinely close to downtown — close enough that plenty of buyers cross-shop it against Downtown Asheville itself — but it trades condo density for a real yard and quiet at night. Kenilworth Lake, a small neighborhood lake near the district's edge, is the kind of detail that doesn't show up in listing photos but matters once you actually live there.
This is one of the neighborhoods on this list I can speak to directly: I closed a sale here in early 2026, and it's one of the transactions I'm proudest of — partly because Kenilworth buyers tend to already know exactly what they want, which makes the search sharper and the negotiation more straightforward.