By Dave Yochum. Charlotte residential real estate is among the Top 3 US markets in terms of highest year-over-year gains in home resales. Real estate here has not been prone to the stunning rises or declines seen in cities like Seattle and San Francisco.
Charlotte, Phoenix and Tampa had home price gains above 4.5 percent. Phoenix led the way with a 6 percent year-over-year price increase, followed by Charlotte with a 4.6 percent gain, and Tampa at 4.5%.
Once hot markets like San Francisco—minus .7 percent—and New York—plus a scant .8 percent—are either down or flat. The Top 20 US markets averaged out at 2.1 percent year over year, while the national average for all markets was 3.2 percent.
How expensive a housing market is can vary wildly from metro to metro. For example, 56.46 percent of homes are valued at $1 million or more in San Jose, Calif., the metro with the largest share of million-dollar homes. In Cincinnati, which has the smallest share of million-dollar homes, that figure is just 0.66 percent.
Charlotte is a boom town, and Lake Norman is less and less of an outpost.
Charlotte has landed the headquarters of Honeywell International and Truist, the bank that will result from the merger of BB&T and SunTrust. The city also benefited from in-market expansions, including a 2,000-employee tech center announced by home improvement retailer Lowe’s and a 400-job expansion announced by Microsoft.
High-end real estate helps drive the entire market. Some Realtors say the toll lanes will support price appreciation in not just the upper brackets but move-up homes as well.
It’s good news for Lake Norman sellers, not so much buyers.
The region’s population continues to grow steadily, according to the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. Between 1990 and 2000, the population grew about 25 percent to 3.1 million. Between 2000 and 2010, there were another 600,000 people. As 2019 comes to a close the population is a little over 4 million.
According to the National Association of Realtors, there are a handful of markets that are expected to rise above the rest over the next three to five years in terms of performance.
Mayor Woody Washam called Cornelius a “fantastic” real estate market.
He mentioned the wide array of housing options, as well as parks, the lake, a county recreation center under construction and the new Cain Center for the Arts which is expected to revitalize downtown,.
“Property values are going up throughout town which assures good investments within our footprint,” he said “The town has developed a good and conservative planning process with high-quality projects making the cut.”
In alphabetical order, the markets are:
Charleston, SC
Charlotte, NC
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Collins, Colo.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Ogden, Utah
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.
