The first eight months of 2013 have brought tremendous growth back to the real estate market in the Charlotte area. We’ve seen as much as 15% price appreciation in some areas year over year. Homeowners that bought during 2006-2007 are finally beginning to see the lost equity return and that’s great news. Following the recesssion, there was great pent up demand and a surge of buying occurred as a result over the past year. The addition of new listings to the market has not kept up pace with demand, and therefore overall supply of housing has dropped. This has lead to rising prices as one would expect based on simple supply and demand.

As an agent on the front lines, I am seeing the heavy demand from buyers begin to slow and listings are starting to come on the market a little faster than before. The real estate indicators have yet to report this news because the trend is so new. We have to always keep in mind that the market stats represent decisions made by buyers and sellers in several months passed. (i.e. a closed sale in July represents a contract that a buyer and seller entered into back in May or June). Based on what I am seeing, I believe that the statistics in the months to come will show a slowing pace of sales and rising inventories.

This is not a warning that buyers and sellers should be alarmed. The pace of sales for the past year have been unsustainable and a slowdown is probably a good thing in the long run. However, sellers should be aware that when pricing a home right now, it will be very important not to be too aggressive and list higher than comparable sales will support.

Today we are sending out our monthly E-Newsletter and we will report the stats for Mecklenburg County when comparing July 2013 to the previous month and again to the same month last year. Here’s a sneak peak:

– Home sales are down 7% from last month, but up 18% from last year.
– Average price is down 2% from last month, but up 15% from last year.
– Median sales price is up 1 from last month and up 22% from last year.
– Average time on market is down 3% from last month and down 28% from last year.
– Average price per square foot is down 3% from last month and up 12% from last year.
– Pending sales are down 4% from last month, but up 12% from last year.
– Housing supply is down 3% from last month and down 29% from last year.
– Mortgage rates are at 4.37% which is up slightly from last month and up from 3.55% last year.
– Average payment is up 1.5% from last month and up 27% from last year.

This data all looks great and shows strong signs of real estate recovery in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have to pay close attention to inventory, pending sales, and closed sales right now. Pending sales are beginning to show a slight decline which will inevitably lead to slower sales and higher inventories. Stay tuned as the market may be getting ready to downshift slightly and I’ll be hearing watching and reporting on the results.