Home prices are rising in Charlotte. Where real estate experts say you can find a deal
Charlotte’s real estate market remains hot, leaving some questioning whether they can afford a mortgage.
Although home prices are on the rise, experts say there are areas where you can find something at a more reasonable price, especially if you’re willing to expand your search radius or do some work on your new house.
Here’s what to know about what buying a home in Charlotte will cost you and where to look when you’re looking for a deal.
Average home price in Charlotte
Charlotte’s real estate market is currently a seller’s market, “which means that there are more people looking to buy than there are homes available,” according to the real estate website Realtor.com. And prices are “trending up.”
The median listing price for homes in Charlotte is $369,900, according to Realtor’s data, which breaks down to about $203 per square foot. The median price homes sold for is $362,000, the website says.
Zillow, another real estate site, offers a slightly lower figure, putting the “typical home value of homes in Charlotte” at $349,176. That number is “seasonally adjusted and only includes the middle price tier of homes” and marks a 25.5% increase over the past year on Zillow’s “Home Value Index.”
In comparison, Zillow’s index has the typical home selling for about $402,000 in Raleigh, $215,000 in Greensboro and $326,000 in Wilmington. On a national scale, Zillow puts the typical home price in the U.S. at $320,662.
Those figures mean it can be difficult for potential buyers to find housing in their budget.
In 2021, according to UNC Charlotte’s Childress Klein Center for Real Estate’s State of Housing report, just 4.4% of the houses sold in the metro area went for under $150,000, while only about 35% of the houses sold cost under $300,000.
Most affordable areas around Charlotte
“Affordability has become a serious issue” across Charlotte’s many neighborhoods, Helen Adams Realty realtor Frank Adams told the Observer, especially for folks looking for a move-in ready home.
“I think that’s in all price points … because all price points are very competitive,” he said. “The best advice we can give folks is to buy something that needs a little TLC.”
Lee Allen, who serves as president of the Canopy Realtor Association and broker-in-charge of RE/MAX Executive, offered a similar assessment, saying “affordability is one of the biggest challenges” facing the Charlotte market.
“It’s so hard to find,” he said of finding homes on a budget, “because the land’s not out there.”
So where should buyers on a budget look? More deals tend to be available when you’re willing to get further away from the heart of the city, according to Adams, and into areas such as Belmont, Gastonia, Mint Hill and Hickory.
“Those are really the affordable areas,” he said. “These town centers that wouldn’t traditionally be considered suburbs, but certainly now as work-from-home options get more and more flexible and you’re not commuting five days a week per se, that drive becomes more manageable.
Allen told the Observer he has seen buyers “trading a commute for affordability,” especially younger home buyers who are open to a property that won’t necessarily be their “forever home.”
“What they’re doing is they’re saying, ‘Hey, I can’t find anything in my price range or what I want in this particular area, and I have to go 15 miles, 18 miles, 22 miles outside of Center City or whatever before I find that,” he said.
Data from Allen’s organization supports the idea that moving further away from downtown Charlotte can open up options.
The average sale price in Uptown Charlotte in December - the most recent data available - was $421,433, up 33.4% from the previous December, according to Canopy’s monthly market report. In the same period in Concord, the average price was $373,020. And in Gastonia and Kannapolis, the average sale prices in December were under $300,000, at $284,351 and $268,193 respectively.
What about apartment rentals in Charlotte?
If you’re looking to rent instead of buy, be prepared for rates to also be on the rise.
The average rent in the Charlotte region is $1,430 per month, the Observer previously reported, according to data from real estate research firm CoStar. Released in September, it reflected a 16.7% increase year-over-year from 2020.
Applying the 30% rule, you’d need a salary of more than $56,000 per year to afford that rent.
Data shows, the Observer previously reported, just about 1% of Charlotte-area apartments lease for less than $1,000.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 5:42 PM.
