I am well and truly at a crossroads on this topic. Facts seem to have absolutely no impact on local boosterism, so I question the point of trying to construct ever-more simple examples to dent the fog. Yet there seems to be some responsibility to fill the vacuum created by the willful idiocy of the status quo. So even though we noted the dopey reporting on this topic the other day, here we go again.
Check out how the NYT positioned Charlotte’s seventh straight month of housing price declines:
Prices in every metropolitan area in Case-Shiller’s 20-city index dropped from September to October, and six of them — Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Washington, Charlotte, N.C., and Tampa, Fla. — posted record one-month declines.
Atlanta and Tampa are very similar to CLT in that they’ve had similar growth patterns and similar inventories of spec-built homes. This is the thing that people have to wrap their heads around — Charlotte was for years a huge spec-inventory market. Builders cannot support prices on empty houses forever, indeed we’ve already seen substantial downward movement in some local developments.
The next key date is January 6th. That is when local property taxes are officially past due. My bet is tons of spec-built parcels will be left twisting as developers scramble to cut their losses. After that, it is a matter of which properties become basically abandoned.
Bonus Observation: The CBJ reports that the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition (REBIC) has parted ways with Executive Director Mary Thomsen and her deputy Tim Morgan as the lobbying outfit shrinks to reflect the overall business landscape.