Charlotte Home Closings and Prices Up

From the Charlotte Business Journal:
The number of residential real estate closings in the Charlotte market rose 5.9 percent in June from May, and the average sales price increased 9.8 percent.

There were 2,024 closings in June, up from 1,912 in May, according to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association. The average sales price rose to $218,728 from $199,243.

Closings and sales prices are down significantly from a year ago.

Last month’s closings fell 26 percent from June 2008, when there were 2,734 closings. The average sales price dropped 6.4 percent from $233,670.

The average listing price of houses sold last month was $244,316, down 1.5 percent from June 2008. The average listing price in June rose 9.3 percent from $223,470 in May.

Charlotte NC Became 18th-Largest US City in 2008

From Charlotte.com

The city of Charlotte was the nation’s 23rd fastest-growing city for the year ending in July 2008, and is now the county’s 18th-largest city, according to Census estimates released Wednesday.

For bragging rights, Charlotte has passed Memphis, Tenn., in population. The Queen City has 687,456 people – up from 570,091 at the start of the decade.

The estimates don’t cover fall 2008, when the recession deepened and hit Charlotte in full force. It’s possible that next year’s growth numbers will be smaller. Mecklenburg County’s unemployment rate is now 11 percent, a few points higher than Wake County’s rate of 8.6 percent.

“The story will likely change over the next year,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo. “Since these numbers came out, the economy has weakened considerably.”

Vitner said he expects Charlotte to still grow in the next year, though at a smaller pace. It’s possible, he said, that the city may lose some newcomers to outlying areas, as people pinch pennies and look for cheaper housing.

“I suspect we’ll find more people looking for affordable places to live,” he said. “It’s typically more expensive to live in a city than in an unincorporated area.”

Charlotte’s growth has been fueled by the city’s strong economy for much of the decade, with areas near the central city being redeveloped with new housing. The city’s growth is also helped by N.C.’s liberal annexation laws. In many cases, Charlotte has grown by annexing outlying communities to capture their tax base.

If Charlotte continues to grow as the city has this decade, it may pass the population in cities such as Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis and Jacksonville in the next 10 years.

Cary was the nation’s third-fastest-growing city in the past year, at 6.9 percent. Raleigh was eighth (3.8 percent) and Durham was 16th (3 percent).

New Orleans was the nation’s fastest-growing city, at 8.2 percent. It now has 311,830 people, up from 210,768 in 2006 following Hurricane Katrina. The pre-storm population of the city was 484,674.

These Census estimates are only for individual cities, and not metro areas. The six-county Charlotte metro area has a population of 1.7 million.

Charlotte NC One of the Fastest Growing Cities in the US

From money.cnn.com

The Big Easy is making a big comeback. New Orleans has steadily won back some of the population it lost in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to a government report released Wednesday.

New Orleans lost more than half its residents during the deluge. Few large U.S. cities have ever had to cope with a disaster on that scale. Since then, it has been one of the country’s fastest growing cities.

Only a couple of instances can compare. Galveston, Texas, was also devastated by a hurricane in 1900, a storm that remains the most lethal natural disaster in U.S. history with a toll of about 6,000 deaths. And San Francisco was almost leveled by the earthquake and fire of 1906.

New Orleans is now growing rapidly. Its population is up 8.2% in the 12 months that ended July 1, 2008, gaining 23,740 people to 311,853, according to the Census Bureau. That still leaves it well below its pre-storm population of 484,674.

For sheer numerical increase, New York City trumped the birthplace of jazz. During the same 12-month period, Gotham added nearly 53,500 residents, more than any other city. That represented a growth rate of only 0.6%.

Following New York City were Phoenix, which added 33,184 residents (2.1%) to a total of 1,567,924, and Houston, up 33,063 to 2,242,193 (1.5%).

The top percentage winners, after New Orleans, were Round Rock, Texas, part of the Austin metropolitan area, which grew by 8.2% to 104,446; Cary, N.C., which gained 6.9% to 129,545; and Gilbert, Ariz., which swelled by 5% to 216,449.

New York retained its position as the largest U.S. city by far. Its nearly 8.4 million folks crammed into 303 square miles is more than twice the number of people who live in sprawling Los Angeles, the nation’s second biggest city with 3,833,995 people.

Chicago, once the nation’s second city, has fallen nearly a million behind Los Angeles with 2,853,114.

Most old Midwestern and Northeastern cities have shrunk in population since World War II as heavy industry waned in importance to the overall economy. Much of the growth in these areas occurred in suburban towns and were not counted in central city population figures.

Meanwhile, many Sun Belt towns exploded with growth as job opportunities in new technology industries proliferated. Northerners, including retirees, also moved south and west, lured by the warmer winters and relaxed life styles.

Among old-line cities, New York has been one of the few to buck this trend. In the years since the last census in 2000, it has gained 355,056 residents, a substantial gain and more than the total number of people who live in St. Louis.

The highest rate of growth since 2000 was reported by McKinney, Texas, which more than doubled to 121,211 from 54,369. Gilbert, Ariz., was second with an 88.7% jump to 216,449.

Few losers
Of the 25 largest cities, only a handful experienced population loss.

Detroit, suffering from the turmoil in the auto industry, fell 0.5% to 912,062. The population of Philadelphia dipped slightly to 1,447,395 from 1.446,631. Baltimore dropped 0.5% to 636,919 and Memphis fell at about the same percentage rate to 660,651.

There have been some changes this year to the 25 largest cities.

For one thing, Denver moved into 24th place with 598,707 residents. It replaced Nashville, which dropped out of the top 25.

In addition, Dallas (1,279,910) edged past San Diego (1,279,329) to eighth place from ninth. San Francisco also moved up to 12th place; its population (808,976) surpassed Jacksonville (807,815).

And Austin (757,688) blew past Columbus (754,885) to 15th. Charlotte (687,456) leapfrogged Memphis (669,651) to 18th and El Paso (613,190) passed Boston (609,023) to 21st.

Charlotte NC: Local home prices rise, best among 20 markets

From Charlotte.com:
Charlotte-area home prices showed a slight monthly gain in March, the first uptick since last summer, according to a widely watched index released today.

Sales prices rose .3 percent compared with February results from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That was the best monthly performance among the 20 urban markets measured by the index and another milestone that could signal the region’s housing market has reached a bottom.

Charlotte-area sales prices remain down compared with March 2008, marking a full year of declining prices. But at 9.3 percent, the yearly decline also showed a tiny improvement over February’s reading.

Comparisons to a year earlier are important because they compare similar periods and reduce the impact of seasonal effects, such as the typical rebound of home sales during the spring.

Still, monthly results can signal a trend. The Charlotte market started a string of monthly declines in July and peaked at a loss of 2.6 percent in December’s index. The index is especially meaningful because it measures repeat sales of existing houses.

Nationwide, the index recorded a 19.1 percent decline for the first quarter, compared with the first three months of 2008. That was the sharpest drop in its 21-year history.

However, March was the second consecutive month since October 2007 in which the index for the 20 markets did not post a record annual decline.

With its 9.3 percent yearly decline, the Charlotte area remained in fifth place in March, behind smaller annual declines in Denver, Dallas, Boston and Cleveland. Those are the only five regions in which annual declines are under 10 percent.

Denver posted a .1 percent monthly increase and Dallas home prices remained flat in March.

Phoenix remains the hardest market in the index, with a decline of 36 percent compared with March 2008.

1Q Home Prices Fall by 19.1 pct to 2002 Levels: But GAINS in Charlotte

NEW YORK National home prices are at levels not seen since the end of 2002, but a closer look at data released Tuesday shows the worst may be over for some cities.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price index reported home prices tumbled by 19.1 percent in the first quarter compared to the first quarter last year, the largest drop in its 21-year history. Home prices have fallen 32.2 percent since peaking in the second quarter of 2006.

In cities across the country home prices varied dramatically, depending on affordability, foreclosure activity and the local economy. The bottom may be in sight in some markets, but nationally home values are expected to decline – though at a slower pace – for the rest of the year.

“We continue to believe that it is unlikely that we are anywhere near a bottom in nationwide home prices,” according to Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR Inc.

It’s hard to believe it could get much worse for homeowners in Detroit. Homes there are worth what they sold for in 1995. And while that’s good news for homebuyers, the implosion of the auto industry and economic fallout means fewer buyers have the money to qualify for a mortgage.

“I feel like houses here are free,” said Detroit area real estate agent Rose Marie Jouan with Re/Max Showcase Homes. Her house that she sold in 2004 for $200,000 is on the sales block, bank-owned, for $86,000.

In Phoenix and Las Vegas, where prices have plunged by half since their peaks, home values have receded to levels not seen since the beginning of the real estate boom. Phoenix prices are at early 2001 levels and Las Vegas values hover at mid-2002 prices.

Home values in Charlotte, N.C., Portland, Ore., and Seattle are steady at 2005 prices, the best showing of all 20 cities in the Case-Shiller report. All three were some of the last to fall into the housing slump.

The Case-Shiller report offered other hopeful signs the worst may be over for some cities. Denver prices posted an increase over February, while Dallas prices were flat.

Separately, Case Shiller said its 20-city index of home prices fell by 18.7 percent from the year before, and the 10-city index lost 18.6 percent. However, the rates of decline slowed in March, the second straight month they didn’t set record price drops.

Still, there are no signs home prices nationally have hit bottom.

“We see no evidence that a recovery in home prices has begun,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.

All 20 cities showed monthly and annual price declines, with nine setting annual records. Fifteen cities posted double-digit drops and Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco recorded declines of more than 30 percent.

Minneapolis posted a 6.1 percent decline from February to March, the biggest monthly drop on record for any metros in the indexes. Ron Peltier, chairman and chief executive of HomeServices of America, attributed the drop to a jump in distressed sales in March.

Economists will get a look at April housing data Wednesday when the National Association of Realtors releases sales data for previously owned homes, and on Thursday when the Commerce Department puts out numbers for sales of newly built homes. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect existing home sales to rise 2 percent from March to April, while new home sales are forecast to rise by 1.1 percent.

Development Continues in East Charlotte Despite Recession

According to this report published today in the Charlotte Observer, developers still are confident in the housing market of East Charlotte.

400 Homes Proposed in Elizabeth

Atlanta’s Winter Properties is seeking to rezone 6.8 acres between East Seventh Street and Weddington Avenue in the Elizabeth area for up to 400 multifamily residential units.

The petition, filed with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department, said the acreage was assembled from 30 separate parcels now occupied by single-family houses, duplexes and multifamily buildings.

The site plan submitted with the application said that buildings facing Seventh and Bascom streets will be three stories with lofts and the remainder, four stories with lofts.

Winter Properties is asking that the property be rezoned from multifamily to a classification called mixed-use development district.

The development company, which couldn’t be reached Thursday for additional comment, said in its application that no commercial or retail uses would be included in the project

The application also noted that the development might be done in phases, but no timetable was provided. A public hearing on the petition is scheduled for July 20.

Monroe Connector Project is Good for Windsor Park

Reliving congestions of highway 74, or Independence Blvd, is the aim of the Monroe Connector Project.

Check out this article on the project from the Charlotte Observer:
Monroe connector project seeks input

The N.C. Turnpike Authority plans to hold four open houses and two corridor design hearings next week for the proposed Monroe connector/bypass project in Mecklenburg and Union counties.

The 21-mile toll road has been billed as an artery to ease commuter gridlock on U.S. 74 and bring added energy to Union County’s quest for new business.

The hearings are increasingly important because towns and transportation officials haven’t yet agreed on a route. Turnpike officials would like to reach an agreement by November and finalize a decision by March 2010. That decision will be be made jointly by the turnpike authority, N.C. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

The Monroe Connector/Bypass has been debated for decades, but delayed as state officials worked to find funding and negotiate an acceptable route. The turnpike authority took over the proposed road in 2006 and, decided it would be a toll road to help fund it.

To learn more about the project, the open houses are scheduled for:

Monday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at South Piedmont Community College, 4209 Old Charlotte Highway outside Monroe.

Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Matthew Community College, 100 W. McDowell St. in Matthews.

Wednesday, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the N.C. Cooperative Extension — Union County Center, 3230-D Presson Rd. in Monroe.

Thursday, 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Wingate University, Cuddy Arena, 230 N. Camden St. in Wingate.

To have your say, the publics hearings are set to begin at 7 p.m. on:

Tuesday at Matthews Community Center at 100 W. McDowell St. in Matthews.

Thursday at Wingate University, Austin Auditorium on 230 Cedar St. in Wingate.

Turnpike authority representatives will be available at the open houses for questions and comments. The open houses are informal and citizens can drop in at any time.

The public hearings are formal meetings, open for statements, questions and comments. Anyone wanting to speak at the formal hearings can register at the open houses or before the hearings. Or they can call Pat Puryear at 919-571-3000, or email monroe@ncturnpike.org.

Mayoral candidates John Lassiter and Anthony Foxx will be at the May 12 Windsor Park Neighborhood Association Meeting

Mayoral candidates, John Lassiter and Anthony Foxx will be at the May 12 Windsor Park Neighborhood Association meeting. The meeting will be held at 6:30 pm in the cafeteria of Windsor Park Elementary School on Sudbury Road.

The two candidates for mayor have agreed to speak to the group for 5 minutes each about why they are running for this office and their platform. They also agreed to take questions for 30 minutes from our membership and others in attendance.

We hope to see you there!

Good News on Charlotte Home Sales: The Decline is Slowing

From Charlotte.com:

The pace of decline in Charlotte-area home sales and prices slowed in April.

 

The 1,773 houses, townhouses and condos sold last month was down 26 percent compared with April 2008, based on figures released this morning for transactions through the Carolina Multiple Listing Services. That breaks a six-month string of declines exceeding 30 percent and December’s especially stark 47 percent drop.

 

Nationally, the housing market, while still down sharply from its peak, has shown signs of stabilizing, a step toward recovery.

 

Much of the regional gain came from a burst of sales in South Carolina’s Lancaster County. Closings soared to 174, up from just 39 a year ago. The county includes Pulte Homes’ Sun City Carolina Lakes, a huge active-adult community that has been relatively successful.

 

Mecklenburg County, which accounted for nearly half of MLS transactions, saw sales fall 37 percent from April 2008. That’s an improvement over March, when sales were down 42 percent. Iredell, Lincoln and Union counties also saw steeper declines, while Cabarrus and Gaston fared better than the average.

 

The sales decline in York County, S.C., also was less than the region’s average. S.C. results do not include all sales through another Realtors group in the area.

 

Overall, April sales were up compared with March, a typical uptick for the spring selling season.

 

The region’s average selling price of $201,352 was down 9 percent compared with a year ago, but that was better than the previous three months’ double-digit price declines.

 

Donna Anderson, president of the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association, which operates the MLS, said she and other agents have seen activity pick up. Last weekend, for example, she said she had multiple offers on a listing. Anderson, a Realtor with Cottingham-Chalk/Bissell-Hayes, also is negotiating a deal.

 

“As Realtors, we have to stay ahead of the curve rather than dwell on what it was last year or several years ago,” she said. The Charlotte market is “showing gradual, consistent and positive improvement.”

Windsor Park Benefits from Charlotte NC Housing Market Gains

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The number of residential real estate closings in the Charlotte region grew 6.1 percent in April from March, according to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association.

The average sales price increased 5.2 percent.

There were 1,773 closings in April, up from 1,671 in March. The average sales price rose to $201,352 from $191,433.

However, closings and sales prices are down significantly from a year ago.

Last month’s closings fell 26.1 percent from April 2008, when there were 2,400 closings. The average sales price dropped 9.1 percent from $221,497 a year ago.

The average listing price of houses sold last month ($228,550) was down 2.8 percent from April 2008’s average list price of $235,127. However, it increased 5.7 percent from March’s list price of $216,135.