Thursday, October 02, 2008

Charlotte Real Estate Market Update

The greater Charlotte Real Estate market remains extremely healthy and strong! What? How do you come to that conclusion? It takes an understanding of Charlotte Real Estate and the property opportunities are clear.

The latest report says Charlotte Real Estate depreciated a little over 1% during the past 12 months. That does not sound tragic but this does not make a good real estate investment. Let's break down the Charlotte Real Estate market and then you decide.

Charlotte is a new city and many of the home sales are new homes in new Charlotte neighborhoods. What happened when the government provided home owners with high risk loans? There was a rush of new home buyers that were not ready to be home owners. Many of these people across the nation rushed to Charlotte NC Real Estate. They purchased Charlotte Homes in new neighborhoods and frequently in the lower cost new neighborhoods. These Charlotte Neighborhoods have a high percentage of Charlotte Homes in foreclosure. What do you think is the appreciation in these neighborhoods? These neighborhoods have depreciated and will take some time to recover. What is their appreciation rate? It is negative and worse than the majority of other homes. Yes, these drag down the remainder of Charlotte homes for sale when you look at the overall rates.

There are also some neighborhoods that Charlotte Real Estate investors decided to rehab. What? Yes, there are certain older neighborhoods that investors across the nation took a small quaint Charlotte neighborhood and then changed the market. They increased the size of the homes, added granite, hardwoods, tile and then doubled the price. These neighborhoods experienced a frenzy of excitement but the fundamentals of demand were not sound. The inflated appreciation of these neighborhoods have not done well.

You will also notice that Million dollar Charlotte homes has also taken a hit. Many of these homes were purchased in the excitement of a rapidly growing city and the buyers did not have a sound long term economic strategy. These homes have taken a hit and not selling as rapidly. How does that impact the market? If 100 million dollar homes sold last year during the summer and then only 10 sold this year, the aggregate numbers will show sharp depreciation if the difference of 90 current homes sales are in the $250,000 range as opposed to a million.

In conclusion, you will see that the Charlotte Real Estate market is still very strong and enjoying a nation wide real estate demand. How do you know a good buy? What is a good value and which homes are not? As a Charlotte Real Estate Agent and my firm understanding of the economy we can assure you find a great Charlotte home for you and your family.