Charlotte Home Prices...Full Steam Ahead!

Charlotte Home Prices UP, no Bubble!

While most of the country worries about falling prices in real estate, a few markets have been unaffected by the non stop Bubble talk. No amount of doom, gloom or rising interest rates have slowed the growth in Charlotte, NC.

Good news travels fast. Barron's noted our first quarter growth in Charlotte at just over 7%, third in the nation. Our numbers on residential single families are even better with the our 1st quarter 2007 sales at an average of $226,998 vs the $209,987 of a year ago, an 8.1% increase. Average cost per sf increased by the same 8% and Days on Market (DOM) rose just 10% to an average of 93 days. And we had "velocity" too, a 5.7% increase in the number of units sold. Average square foot prices were just over $110 for the 1st quarter of 2007, up from $102 just a year ago. A very healthy Charlotte Real Estate market remained that way through the first quarter of 2007.

But that is only part of the story-- whenever you hear an average, its worth looking at the parts, and we did that too. And comparing the differrent areas produced many surprises. Our study compares the following regions: Myers Park, Dilworth and South Park, I called it InTown. South Charlotte begins at Southpark and Fairview, and sweeps south to the Union County border, roughly between and including Matthews and Ballantyne. Close-in Union County is the area that is adjacent to Mecklenburg County, with towns like Wesley Chapel, Weddington, Waxhaw and Marvin. The last area, the fastest appreciating one, is to the north, beginning at the lower Lake Norman Area- Huntersville, and including the larger lake area from Cornelius and Davidson all the way to Mooresville and Denver.

It was no surprise to see the intown area of South Park, Myers Park and Dilworth exceed the average by almost 30%, more surprising was the strength of the northern suburb of Huntersville, and the lake area, appreciating at more than 50% above the entire region's average. Perhaps the most surprising were the results from Union County, the 8th fastest growing county in the nation with the very popular communities of Wesley Chapel, Weddington, Marvin and Waxhaw, what I call close-in Union, just adjacent to Mecklenburg County. These prices held steady, well below the region's average. Perhaps the huge number of new home communities in Union have held prices down?

The shocker here is Union County, has the lowest rate of growth over the year. What explains it? That will require some research, but a guess is the abundance of new homes and new home inventories has kept prices in check. It will be interesting to see the affects of the sewer moratorium there... In another study we found Ballantyne, a very popular neighborhood next to Union County, had only risen 2.8% in 2006 by average sqare foot pricing. Another interesting note is that the Days on Market increased regionally by almost 11%-- but DOM decreases in most of our more popular neighborhoods above. Future studies will break these numbers down further and look at Condominiums and Townhouses across the region.

I've said for years that Charlotte has grown the old fashioned way- adding jobs, and adding families voting with their feet for a better standard of living here-- that trend continues, and I look forward to talking about some of the challenges this very steady growth means for the area. I'll have more details in the future.