Pay attention. We’ve been going around and around on this topic, but now there might be some info which shows that the Charlotte metro area housing market still has a ways to fall.
Metro area year-to-year home prices fell just 1.46 from September 2007 to September 2008, according to First American CoreLogic. Nationally the price drop was just over 8 percent during the same time. But home sales fell just 12.5 percent nationwide compared to 35 percent locally. See?
This suggests that home prices still must adjust downward a good bit to re-start local sales. All the real estate agents and developers do not want to hear this, but I do not know how else to make sense of this data. It is certainly true that much of the in-fill development I see in South Charlotte is sitting empty, in some cases despite 20 or 25 percent cuts in the asking prices. I’ve even seen a couple “for rent” signs pop up — a sure sign of distress.
Like I’ve said, I see no reason to assume that the local real estate sector is in that different of a place 12 months from now. There is still much correcting to do.
