What’s the Charlotte area housing market worth? New study details the billions
It’s no secret that home prices are increasing in Charlotte and throughout the U.S. But as of June, U.S. home values hit a record high and North Carolina had a top 10 share in the total value.
Home values in the U.S. were worth $55.1 trillion as of June, according to data from Zillow released Monday. That’s a 57% increase, or $20 trillion, from 2020.
North Carolina’s total market value hit $1.5 trillion, or about 2.8% of the nation’s total market value. The state saw a $673 billion increase from February 2020 to June, rounding out the total market value rankings in 10th place, below Illinois, Pennsylvania and the top states of California and New York.
As for the Charlotte metro area, the total housing value hit $412 billion, according to the real estate group. The metro area also saw a $3 billion year-over-year increase, or a 0.7% growth rate. In the Raleigh metro area, the value was $246 billion, according to the report from Zillow.
Zillow’s report added that a small portion of the housing value increase is due to new construction, but a majority is from home appreciation values. About 9% of Charlotte’s housing market gain came from new construction since 2020.
A look at Charlotte’s August housing numbers
The multibillion-dollar value makes sense when looking at the city’ of Charlotte’s median sale price.
For August, Charlotte’s median home sale price was $430,000, according to Canopy MLS data. That’s an almost 5% increase from last year.
And the increase isn’t just within the city limits.
The median sale price for the Charlotte metro was $420,000, an increase of almost 3% from last year. The metro area includes Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan and Union Counties in North Carolina, along with Chester, Lancaster and York Counties in South Carolina
Mecklenburg County’s median price was $466,000 in August, an almost 6% increase.
According to the National Association of Realtors, and as of July, the U.S. has seen 25 months of year-over-year median price increases.
Home sales continued to dip in the metro area, county and city, Canopy’s August numbers show.
What do these numbers mean for Charlotte homebuyers?
Charlotte home prices are becoming increasingly unaffordable, along with the rest of the country.
Home prices in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area haven’t been affordable since January 2022, looking at the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s Home Ownership Affordability Monitor.
Let’s break that down. The monitor provides a monthly look into whether an area’s median-income household can afford a median-price home.
If people in a household spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs — which includes rent, mortgages, insurance and utilities — they are considered cost-burdened, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In January 2022, the Atlanta Fed found that a household making the median income, which was $74,923, would be paying 31% of that income on a median-priced house, which was $345,667
Since then, that income-to-housing cost ratio has only increased.
As of July, people making the median income of $85,758 would be paying more than 44% of their income toward a median price home in the Charlotte area.
