Housing Slow Down

So what do you think? How will Charlotte and Birkdale fare with the housing slow down?

Charlotte's Housing Slow Down

As we walk the neighborhood we can't help but notice that it is taking longer for houses to sell in Charlotte. The Charlotte Observer reported that Home Sales have drop significantly and that new housing starts have declined by one third year over year. At the same time the average house price rose 7% in the past quarter. My thoughts on the housing slow down are that I am glad I bought in Birkdale. Although houses seem to be taking longer to sell here they are at least selling. One house on our street Sold By Owner within three weeks of posting the sign. Two other houses also sold on the street. Speaking with recent and prospective buyers it seems that the slow down here is because people elsewhere (NY and California) can't sell their houses there to actually move here.
It seems that things outside of Uptown, the Lake, and Birkdale village aren't looking so good. Many of the run of the mill sub-divisions (the ones without a built in attraction) are battling foreclosures and acres upon acres of new houses. Moss Creek is a new sub-division along NC 73 and down the road (about 7 miles) from Birkdale that is being hit hard. As the sub-division is still being built the builder has offered significant enticements to new buyers. That has hurt the resellers already on the market so they have been forced to lower prices. Now, who wants to buy in a sub-division where current owners are losing money on a house they recently bought. We just had two friends who lost their $5000 deposit in Moss Creek after they pulled out of the pre-construction contract. They figured that it was cheaper to loss the $5000 up front that it would be to ride out the market where recently purchased homes are down about $15,000. In a sense, Charlotte has so much vacant forest and farm land that the new home potential is what has held down prices here and is what will also hurt existing home owners as the market declines.
Of course, the decrease in new home permits tied with the fact that Charlotte is still one of the top "move to" destinations in the country may mean that existing home owners could come out ok. Also, what all this means for Birkdale is that it seems the consensus among new home buyers (or maybe it is the hope of existing home owners) is that Birkdale Village is a safer bet that the surrounding sub-divisions because Birkdale itself is an attraction. Prices may not rise as fast as they have in the past but at least homes will continue to move as they have been all summer.