State of the Matthews, NC Real Estate Market in October, 2015

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Nov. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- We hear a lot in the news about how strong the Charlotte Real Estate market is right now. In fact, in a Matthews/Mint Hill Weekly article last week on the self-storage boom, Billy Stephens, senior director for Matthews-based Morningstar Properties was quoted as saying
“Charlotte is one of the booming real estate markets and one of the fastest-growing…”

That got me thinking about a question: Is the Real Estate market really as great as you hear in the news?

While the market is not perfect, and never will be, almost anyone involved in buying or selling homes will tell you this year has been good, and the statistics back it up. The Charlotte area has made dramatic strides in the past couple of years to recover from the decimation of the downturn. Overall the economy of our region is healthy, with the unemployment rate being cut by more than half as told in this Charlotte Observer article, even while more people move to our area.

The assertion has been made that the real estate market has recovered to the strength before the downturn, and I wanted to dig-in and verify this. (That’s what an engineer-turned-Realtor does, anyway.)

According to statistics, the downturn officially started in December 2007, so to avoid picking an arbitrary date we’re going start from that point. Since the latest numbers from the MLS came out recently, we’ll compare the numbers with September 2015.  Finally, since I live and love the Matthews and Mint Hill areas, I mined the data and will dig into just those two markets!

Closed Sales
The number of homes that were purchased, with the closing taking place that month.

• December 2007

• Matthews: 1,177
• Mint Hill: 306

• September 2015

• Matthews: 1,146
• Mint Hill: 460

Months Supply
The number of months it would take to sell all homes on the market at the current sales rate.

• December 2007

• Matthews: 5.3
• Mint Hill: 6.7

• September 2015

• Matthews: 3.4
• Mint Hill: 6.9

Median Sales Price
The “middle” value of all homes sold.

• December 2007

• Matthews: 229,900
• Mint Hill: 258,258

• September 2015

• Matthews: 226,950
• Mint Hill: 257,750

Number of Homes for Sale
The number of homes listed on the MLS as available.

• December 2007

• Matthews: 546
• Mint Hill: 181

• September 2015

• Matthews: 311
• Mint Hill: 241

Conclusion
The Matthews and Mint Hill real estate markets have made dramatic strides in the past couple of years, and by most metrics now nearly matches the mark set just prior to the downturn.

Overall, the Matthews market is a bit more robust with the Mint Hill market seemingly lagging a bit behind. In the numbers above you’ll see the supply of homes in Matthews is below what would be expected, and the rising prices and limited inventory are making this a bit of a “seller’s market.” Buyers can get frustrated when looking at homes, finding one they love, only to see it already under contract before they can put in an offer.

While no one has a crystal ball to see the future, experts believe that interest rates will rise in the near future, and ultimately that will restrict the amount of home purchasers can buy and put a bit of a damper on sales. However, new home starts have lagged the recovery, and there appears to be some pent-up demand in the market, and experts who read the tea leaves believe what we’re in right now will be an extended recovery for the foreseeable future!