Waaay deep into the city of Charlotte’s latest financials — page 176 out of 222, specifically, and yes I read this junk so you don’t have to — you’ll find a curious and alarming number. Despite annexations which automatically pump up the value of the city’s tax base, you’ll see that the value of commercial real estate in the city ticked down by $500m. in 2009.
The decrease from $24.2b. worth of commercial real estate in 2008 to $23.7b. reverses a steady upward trend and points to perhaps a continued decline in 2010. In fact, once you consider that the county must reset property values next year to comport with state law, the city’s overall valuation of $74.2b. for 2009 might be in for a serious downward revision.
As it stands, total city real estate value continued to climb slightly in 2009, up 2.2% thanks mainly to the effects of annexation. Still, since 1999, the assessed value of real estate in Charlotte has zoomed up by 77 percent. This is the boom time. This is the root of all the money which has been thrown around all over town.
If that stops — let alone reverses course — it will not be pretty.
Bonus Observation: This Globe and Mail account of Charlotte’s situation is evidently causing heartburn around town, but it seems pretty accurate to me.
“We have a long way to go to figure out what the real values are,” acknowledged Pat Riley, president of Charlotte-based Allen Tate, the largest real estate broker in the area. “We’re still in that figuring-out place.”
Downtown, or “Uptown” as the locals call it, the condo and office markets are hurting. Several of the more recent projects have stalled or now sit largely empty. Developers recently pulled the plug on the 400-unit, 50-storey Epicentre condo, capping it after completing the lower-floor retail section. Steel bars still jut out of the roof.
Uh. Yep. That’s us.
