This week our listings saw an average of 2.1 each which is double the amount for last week.   Perhaps there is a rush to do some last minute shopping before the holiday.   Many of you have experienced price reductions in the past few weeks which has certainly helped to increase traffic.   There was no significant real estate news posted this week to change the state of our current market.   For the most part, the market is winding down for the holidays and I expect very little activity between Thanksgiving and Christmas.   However, that is very normal.   The activity in early January should be more indicative of the direction of the market for 2008.

This quarter’s Charlotte Chamber of Commerce publication Ventures had an article from Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wachovia Corporation on the state of the Charlotte market.   Mr. Vitner had nothing but postive things about growth in our city.   He noted solid gains in employment and income growth, strong commerical and business development, and an overal healthy economy.   In fact, Expanison Management magazine has apparently ranked the Charlotte area as the second best large market for recruitment of new busineses and Mecklenburg county was ranked number one amongst the nation’s largest counties.   Of course, Mr. Vitner noted that our home sales have been impacted by the subprime mortgage market and its implications to the national economy.   That is no surprise to any of us.   My key take-away from the article was that although the national mortgage market may have some negative effects on the national economy, at least our local economy still bodes well.    So,  although  our country may be experiencing some economic difficulties right now, it could be worse and  there’s no doubt that Charlotte is  good place to be.   Now that’s something to be thankful for.   😉   Happy Thanksgiving!