This week our listings saw an average of 1.1 showings each. This is quite a slowdown over previous weeks. The slowdown in traffic is certainly not related to media reports on Charlotte, NC. It was a tremendous week in the news for our great home. Here’s a summary of a few recent stories:
Yahoo! Finance reported Charlotte as the ‘Number One Place to Live’ in the US. Criteria used to give us the award included area growth, education and employment opportunities, crime rates and housing options.
Forbes.com named Charlotte as number nine on its list of ‘Most Recession Proof Cities’. Their list was based on home prices, unemployment, and expected economic growth in the first half of the year.
Money Magazine reported real estate statistics for the ‘100 Biggest US Markets’. This article does not single out Charlotte as a big winner or loser, but it does include some key statistics about us. It reports the following in Charlotte:
Median Home Price = $205,000
One Year Change in Home Price = 6.1%
Five Year Change in Home Price = 27.8%
Forecast Change in Price to May 2009 = -0.5%
It predicts that our price peaked in Q2 ’08 (Peaking Now)
It predicts we’ll see the bottom in Q3 ’09
It predicts the bottom will be -0.5% from the peak.
All of these reports match what we’ve been seeing locally. The data reported in these articles dates well back to the early part of 2008. The real time data does seem to be somewhat in line with these national reports. Last week, my monthly E-Newsletter reported that Mecklenburg home prices had dropped 3% from the same period last year (month over month).
So if all of these reports are correct, (and I think they are), we will not see a either a huge gain or decline in prices over the next year. This is much of the same that we’ve been hearing for months now. My advice for sellers is still to keep pricing as competitive as possible and make continuous market adjustments as needed. My advice for buyers is that a window of opportunity is happening right now; get out there and buy before its too late!