Man, is the spin picking up on this topic.

The Uptown paper of record reports that existing home sales fell 36 percent last quarter compared to the previous year. That is over double the national pull-back of 16 percent.

This should not surprise anyone. Precisely because Charlotte did not have the speculative frenzy that some markets had our real estate correction lagged. As we’ve repeatedly tried to point out, the macro issues at work — tighter lending standards, $4 gas, inability to cash-out elsewhere etc. — would have to bite the QC sooner or later. Later is here.

But over on the editorial pages, the same paper permits a real estate investor to peddle the same tired no-bubble, no-problem myth. Yes, compared to some places Charlotte’s economic fundamentals are much, much better. But the national real estate market was overvalued and is now in the midst of finding new, lower values. Once that process is finished in a year or so, values may then start to climb again — provided Charlotte maintains the income base to pay for higher housing costs.

This is not terribly complicated. But just wait until Mecklenburg County residents get their new tax bills showing valuations significantly above the corrected market value. Then the stuff will really hit the fan.

Update: Ha! The N&O happens to catch the Wake County splatter today and it ain’t pretty. Wake’s re-val tax bills are starting to hit and homeowners are aghast.

Wake’s revaluation of Raleigh homeowner Helen Rodman’s home pegged its value at $1 million, just a month after a market reappraisal placed its value at $800,000. But a soft real estate market meant she only got $775,000 when she sold her home this month — about three-quarters of what the county had thought it was worth. …

…Three years ago, Erik and Christina Manring built a new home in Raleigh on property once owned by his parents. At the time, their home was assessed at $650,000, a figure she considered fair.

But the county’s 2008 revaluation pegged their property’s value at nearly $1.3 million, a doubling she considers outrageous. Especially infuriating, Manring said, was that county appraisers agreed to knock just $34,000 off her property’s seven-figure value when the couple appealed their revaluation.

You have been warned.