OK, let’s just take it on faith that all these “young and restless” hipsters are “flocking” to Charlotte — what do they cite as the reason? Whitewater Park? NASCAR Hall of Fame? Wachovia Arts Tower? Not so much:
Two years ago, Jignesh Shroff and his wife looked for houses in what Shroff thought was his dream city, San Diego.
Shroff woke up from the dream once he saw listing prices. He looked for other cities with saner real estate costs and ended up in Charlotte. He and his wife, Kathryn, live in a $327,000 home he said would have cost $1.5 million in San Diego.
So cost-of-living is major factor. Housing cost is a big part of that. Just as we noted with regard to the Business Week boosting of Matthews as a great American suburb.
Yet here we stand with a fresh bid to increase Charlotte’s housing prices via a real estate transfer tax. Does the Chamber’s Bob Morgan understand the connection? He seems eager to claim credit for the “flockers” but the Chamber remains curiously silent with regard to the real estate transfer tax concept. This after Morgan loudly complained about the growing tax burden.
Something doesn’t quite compute.
