How’s the Charlotte Real Estate Market Doing in 2013?

I get the question, “How’s the real estate market?” several times each day! I love getting that now, because in 2013, we’re seeing strong signs of a serious recovery.

How do we determine whether or not we’re in a strong recovery? First of all, we’re incredibly busy with sellers receiving multiple Offers and buyers struggling to find that perfect home with the low inventory that we’re experiencing now.

Secondly, there are 3 factors that come into play that support our answer:

New Construction: Privately-owned housing starts in March of this year were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000. This is 7% above the February estimate of 968,000 and is 46.7% above March 2012 start data of 706,000.
Distressed Properties and Mortgage Delinquencies: Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures are down 3% year-over-year, according to Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS), a leading provider of data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries. This data represents March 2013, month-end mortgage performance statistics; the loan-level data represents approximately 70% of the overall market. According to LPS, we are also seeing a slight reduction in foreclosure inventory; foreclosure properties are under 5-million, for the first time in 5 years.
Resale Data: Finally resales rose in March, marking an 8% increase over March 2012 sales in the entire Charlotte MLS. All home sales were up 24.2% year-over-year in March. As well, March 2013 resales improved 3% over February, 2013, despite the low supply of inventory.

Inventory in the Charlotte real estate market has gone from a buyer’s market last year (9.8 month supply) to a seller’s market in 2013, with only 5.2 months supply on the market.

Closed Charlotte Home Sales, as stated above are up 22.9% year-over-year and up over 27% from same month, 2011.

Average Charlotte home sales prices are also on the rise, up 8.5% to $215,222

For more information on the Charlotte NC real estate market, give us a call! We’re happy to share our knowledge with you to help you realize the most potential in this ever-changing market. If you’re thinking of selling your Charlotte home, email me at SavvyBroker@me.com.