Last September, sisters Donna Matis and Caroline Steele of Edison, New Jersey, purchased land in the Western North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains.
They paid $80,000 for roughly 10 acres near the town of Spruce Pine, a plot their great-grandfather had once owned. There, the siblings in their 60s plan to build separate homes and eventually live year-round.
“We were stoked when we were able to get it,” Steele, 64, said. “Try to keep it in the family.”…