Charlotte area population statistics

[KJHburg]

In terms of housing prices Wake's median house price is $490,000 vs $385,000 in Durham County.  Wake county is much bigger and more expensive.   Durham county is much smaller physically than Wake too so there is more room for SF homes all over Wake. 

Charlotte Mecklenburg builds thousands of apartments but much less SF homes.  Apartments are usually 1-2 people and homes are 3-4 people.  Obviously not true on every situation but this is in general.  Meck housing prices are higher than most surrounding counties and the quality of public schools in Meck county is good but great like in the surrounding counties.    For example I know of 2 couples that moved from Brooklyn last year.  One without kids moved into Charlotte.  Other couple with kids moved to Cabarrus County.  So this was 2 for Meck and 4 people for Cabarrus.    This is repeated over and over.  

[CLT2014]

Wake County has a ton of massive suburban developments being built with all of the things families from the Northeast are looking for in areas like Cary, Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, et...  In the Triangle, Wake County is "the family" destination + the destination for in-town urban living. In the Charlotte metro, that family growth is much more spread out to Cabarrus, Union, Iredell, York, and Lancaster Counties... depending on where your job is (University vs Ballantyne vs Airport area vs Uptown, et...). For many people looking to move to Charlotte from out of state.... they see the school ratings outside of the South Charlotte wedge, freak out, and move to areas like Fort Mill or Indian Land or Waxhaw or Concord, et.... where they see 8/10 school ratings for a $600,000 4 bedroom house. I don't think Mecklenburg has "the family friendly" reputation like Wake does, but it is the in town urban living choice. Wake just manages to be both since so many of the "good school" suburbs are within county limits, while they are out of county limits in Meck.

Wake has:
1.) More empty and open land for single family homes and townhomes

2.) More of the county has high ranking public schools (people moving from out of state rely on rankings to make decisions)

3.) Master planned developments / "looks ideal and perfect", while Meck is becoming largely infill

4.) Easier commuting patterns than Charlotte due to the layout of the region and where employers are located

5.) Apartment growth in the core that compliments the suburban growth in the suburbs in county limits

Edited July 25, 2022 by CLT2014

[HopHead]

31 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

In terms of housing prices Wake's median house price is $490,000 vs $385,000 in Durham County.  Wake county is much bigger and more expensive.   Durham county is much smaller physically than Wake too so there is more room for SF homes all over Wake. 

Charlotte Mecklenburg builds thousands of apartments but much less SF homes.  Apartments are usually 1-2 people and homes are 3-4 people.  Obviously not true on every situation but this is in general.  Meck housing prices are higher than most surrounding counties and the quality of public schools in Meck county is good but great like in the surrounding counties.    For example I know of 2 couples that moved from Brooklyn last year.  One without kids moved into Charlotte.  Other couple with kids moved to Cabarrus County.  So this was 2 for Meck and 4 people for Cabarrus.    This is repeated over and over.  

I know several friends from NOVA/MD area that have moved down to York county for all those reasons, as opposed to Mecklenburg. Most of their jobs are in Meck County, but what York offers in terms of schools and housing are much more appealing for families. Heck, just drive across the border near 521 and 160 in York county and you'll see countless new subdivisions under construction for that very reason. Fully expect that trend to continue over the next decade given the available land. But like everywhere else, that new money from up north and out west is driving up the cost of housing. 

[turbocraig]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

…I know of 2 couples that moved from Brooklyn last year.  One without kids moved into Charlotte.  Other couple with kids moved to Cabarrus County.  

We all know who two of those Brooklyn people are..  

And who’s renting all those SE and Noda apartments if we’re losing migrative population?  All those babies??

[JRCLT]

Natural progression of a city as it grows higher urban density spreads from the core and suburban area expands outward along with it. Classic rapid urbanization. (Not really a good thing for the environment). More traffic, more driving, more pollution, more land use, more energy use, etc. generally how most cities grow.

https://www.mecknc.gov/CountyManagersOffice/SPE/Community%20Pulse%20Reports/2022%20Mecklenburg%20County%20Community%20Pulse%20Report.pdf

[15895]

1 hour ago, JeanClt said:

Natural progression of a city as it grows higher urban density spreads from the core and suburban area expands outward along with it. Classic rapid urbanization. (Not really a good thing for the environment). More traffic, more driving, more pollution, more land use, more energy use, etc. generally how most cities grow.

https://www.mecknc.gov/CountyManagersOffice/SPE/Community%20Pulse%20Reports/2022%20Mecklenburg%20County%20Community%20Pulse%20Report.pdf

Aka low density sprawl. 
 

edit: geez! The graph in your link.

Edited July 25, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[KJHburg]

Here is the Median house prices for June 2022 in the various counties around the metro and this does affect population growth when there are such big differences.    Not all ring county employees need to come into the office everyday either so many commute now only 3 days of the week.  In manufacturing which is huge in the ring counties they commute 5 days a week as they have to be there.  

Mecklenburg   $ 441,570  Not the highest  on NC side would be Lincoln County (mainly due to eastern Lincoln by the Lake)  $446,915

Other big counties around Meck

Cabarrus   $387,000

Gaston    $300,000   lowest median price of any county touching Mecklenburg 

Iredell    $433,000

Union $432,815

York    $405,000

Lancaster County SC  $458,730 

Inside the city of Charlotte the median price is $423,265 median price 

You get bigger homes for less money in every surrounding county and that would include Lancaster County they just build bigger houses in their newer communities there dittos for Lincoln. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by KJHburg

[kayman]

9 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I wonder how the population gains shook out in Mecklenburg and Charlotte. 
 

Wake County had the highest population gains in the Triangle region and it looks like Mecklenburg had the worst. I wonder what factors contribute to that dichotomy.

It’ll be interesting to see future statistics as things normalize. Things that come to my mind are (1.) Durham & Mecklenburg have relatively higher urban black populations and (2.) Wake is larger and may have more suburban areas and cheaper homes in its boundaries that attracted people. 

 

Not to sound cynical or political, but I’ve noticed black urban areas “declined” throughout the country. I just feel like something is off. They really need to re-do the census at least for some areas where it is impactful to government $ allocations. 

Remember when I said these things:

https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/topic/118119-charlotte-area-population-statistics/?do=findComment&comment=1796949

 

Now it's starting to all make sense.

 

[15895]

53 minutes ago, kayman said:

Remember when I said these things:

https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/topic/118119-charlotte-area-population-statistics/?do=findComment&comment=1796949

 

Now it's starting to all make sense.

 

I do & I agreed with you. 

I’ve also saw in the cities & counties that declined or slowed, the heavily black neighborhoods had the largest hits with other areas chugging along.

For example with Charlotte/Mecklenburg. It’d be interesting to see where there were losses or declines and where there were increases. I would not be surprised if it were predominately black neighborhoods on the population decline. 

DC’s 2020-2021 declined matched up pretty strong by race. (excluding 20007 which is a very wealthy/elite area so that’s an outlier). If not for 20007, the net move outs just strong resemble the racial map. Blue is white folk and green is black folk on the map below. 

I have no reason to think so, but I would still bet Charlotte would play out similarly. Maybe it’s not a bad thing? Maybe during the pandemic lower income black residents were able and preferred to move to lower cost suburbs? It doesn’t have to be nefarious but there are some trends we will only know the next round of data we get. 
 

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[LKN704]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:17 PM, AirNostrumMAD said:

I do & I agreed with you. 

I’ve also saw in the cities & counties that declined or slowed, the heavily black neighborhoods had the largest hits with other areas chugging along.

For example with Charlotte/Mecklenburg. It’d be interesting to see where there were losses or declines and where there were increases. I would not be surprised if it were predominately black neighborhoods on the population decline. 

DC’s 2020-2021 declined matched up pretty strong by race. (excluding 20007 which is a very wealthy/elite area so that’s an outlier). If not for 20007, the net move outs just strong resemble the racial map. Blue is white folk and green is black folk on the map below. 

I have no reason to think so, but I would still bet Charlotte would play out similarly. Maybe it’s not a bad thing? Maybe during the pandemic lower income black residents were able and preferred to move to lower cost suburbs? It doesn’t have to be nefarious but there are some trends we will only know the next round of data we get. 
 

 

As it stands, 20007 tends to have a more transient population as it stands due to both GW and Georgetown students residing in the zip code (more so Georgetown) so I would wager a good number of those moves were simply college kids moving back home. 

20016 is a far wealthier zip code. 

[KJHburg]

Chuck McShane of Costar tweeted this out..

Chuck McShane
@chuckmcshane

Where did millennials who moved to Charlotte come from? Mostly other parts of the Carolinas: 
Raleigh 1.9% 
New York 1.8%
Greensboro 1.7%
Hickory 1.5%
Columbia, SC 1.1%
Fayetteville 1.1%
Washington DC 1%
Northern NJ 0.9%
Atlanta 0.9%
Greenville, SC 0.9%
Buffalo, NY 0.8%

 

[videtur quam contuor]

My question was % of what? This is his explanation:

 

Location at age 16 for all those whose location was Charlotte at age 26. 57% were in charlotte at both age 16 and 26. So this is a breakdown of the top locations at age 16 for the remaining 43%

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[15895]

Why does google vary so differently from every other source on uptown’s population. 

The census has 28202 at around 14,153 for 2020.

Which is similar to Center City Partners that has uptown at 20,000 for YE2021. REIS and many other sources agree. Which the discrepancy makes sense given 28202 doesn’t include all of uptown. 

Yet Wikipedia has 35,000 along with the main google page.

It’s been extremely incorrect for years. And there’s so many frequent updates to the page yet no one bothers to edit to be what I assume a bigly incorrect population figure? 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[JacksonH]

This is disheartening but it's happening.  I pointed out in another thread awhile back that our downtowns post pandemic are not going to be the same.  Companies have realized they don't need to have people in the office all the time and the work can still get done.  I gave an example of my nephew, who works for a firm in Uptown Charlotte.  He just moved from Charlotte to Charleston.  They let him do it.  He's never coming back to Charlotte.  His Uptown office is permanently vacated.  I also gave the example of the agency I work for.  Since COVID we have closed our office and become permanently remote.  All of us.  Our employees are now spreading out all over the country.  Some people "laughed" at my comment.  Those people want to live in a fantasy and not face facts.  Yeah, Charlotte will continue to grow, or at least the Charlotte region will, but not as fast.  And sadly it seems it's going reach a point where it doesn't grow the same way, which is sad.  And the environment and animal species will likely be punished for it.  And probably American cities also.  We'll see.  I just hope urban planners can come up with creative ways to entice people back.

https://www.wfae.org/business/2022-07-28/data-show-more-people-leaving-mecklenburg-than-moving-to-the-county

[JHart]

51 minutes ago, JacksonH said:

This is disheartening but it's happening.  I pointed out in another thread awhile back that our downtowns post pandemic are not going to be the same.  Companies have realized they don't need to have people in the office all the time and the work can still get done.  I gave an example of my nephew, who works for a firm in Uptown Charlotte.  He just moved from Charlotte to Charleston.  They let him do it.  He's never coming back to Charlotte.  His Uptown office is permanently vacated.  I also gave the example of the agency I work for.  Since COVID we have closed our office and become permanently remote.  All of us.  Our employees are now spreading out all over the country.  Some people "laughed" at my comment.  Those people want to live in a fantasy and not face facts.  Yeah, Charlotte will continue to grow, or at least the Charlotte region will, but not as fast.  And sadly it seems it's going reach a point where it doesn't grow the same way, which is sad.  And the environment and animal species will likely be punished for it.  And probably American cities also.  We'll see.  I just hope urban planners can come up with creative ways to entice people back.

https://www.wfae.org/business/2022-07-28/data-show-more-people-leaving-mecklenburg-than-moving-to-the-county

You've got to keep the dates in mind, July 2020 to July 2021 is the timeframe referenced and that was 2,000 people. Peak pandemic time to 2.5% 30 year mortgage rates and no major employers RTO, when plenty of people moved into the surrounding areas. This does not mean people are currently leaving Mecklenburg county today. 

[JacksonH]

53 minutes ago, JHart said:

You've got to keep the dates in mind, July 2020 to July 2021 is the timeframe referenced and that was 2,000 people. Peak pandemic time to 2.5% 30 year mortgage rates and no major employers RTO, when plenty of people moved into the surrounding areas. This does not mean people are currently leaving Mecklenburg county today. 

My nephew just left last month.  A couple people in my agency have moved far from where our office is located, and to other states.  Others are in the planning stages.  You need to read this interview.  It's happening *now*.

[15895]

4 hours ago, JacksonH said:

My nephew just left last month.  A couple people in my agency have moved far from where our office is located, and to other states.  Others are in the planning stages.  You need to read this interview.  It's happening *now*.

That’s why I’m pretty critical about, for example, Legacy Union.  It comes across as a broken record and I know some people have the “It’s better than nothing” but I’ve always maintained, uptown has to do more than cater to office workers and special events to go to the next level. Uptown probably won’t be to where I ever hoped it would - and based on some peoples commentary theirs too. But that’s fine because SouthEnd became a version of uptown (ground level wise) that people sought to create. I hated living in uptown (catalyst), personally. Completely didn’t match my fantasy, lol. It was definitely more fun to visit. If uptown does face a decline of M-F workers… how does it transition to something else. That’s things to think about for city leaders. 

My new fantasy, if I could play Charlotte god… I would focus so much in the area in red below with a 24/7 bus & streetcar only lane in blue. 

Wide sidewalks throughout most of the area in red with large cross walks at intersections, tons of stop signs, speed bumps. Upzoning for middle housing, food places, outdoor streateries and focus on a few key streets for commercial purposes. Houses would have to flush to the street with on street parking or alleys. No podium parking or above ground parking anywhere. A bunch of Protected bike lanes. Mixed in with obviously singly family, Multifamily, duplex, triplex etc housing.  

 

inspired by the below but looking more similar to Birkdale Village, NoDa, SouthEnd & Plaza had a baby all throughout that red area. And obviously a little less intense given Charlotte wouldn’t just pop up to 30,000 people per sq mile lol. But you get the idea. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[KJHburg]

Notice the 2 counties growing the fastest with new homes Cabarrus and Lincoln in the Charlotte region.   Look at Currituck and Camden up in NE NC overflow from the more expensive Tidewater VA area.    Source Axios Raleigh

Edited July 30, 2022 by KJHburg

[southslider]

Notice all but 2 of 100 NC counties grew in housing, despite only 49 of 100 growing in population. With most household sizes becoming smaller, any population growth requires significantly more housing.

[videtur quam contuor]

https://metrosight.com/articles/cities-expansion-slowing

Scroll down for the chart of expansion/expensive comparisons, among other visuals. This post gave me something to think about.

[15895]

2 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

https://metrosight.com/articles/cities-expansion-slowing

Scroll down for the chart of expansion/expensive comparisons, among other visuals. This post gave me something to think about.

That was such a great article with great data. Thanks for sharing.

[Temeteron]

20 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

That was such a great article with great data. Thanks for sharing.

Is it just me or are the listings of each metro kind of messed up?  Some of them are above and some are below. Kind of confusing

[Richhamleigh, DC]

The Carolinas are kicking it.  Besting every state but Florida.  No sign of Georgia in the list or Tennessee.  

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/11/americans-earning-200000-dollars-or-more-flocking-to-these-states.html

Edited August 11, 2022 by Phillydog

[JacksonH]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:05 PM, JacksonH said:

This is disheartening but it's happening.  I pointed out in another thread awhile back that our downtowns post pandemic are not going to be the same.  Companies have realized they don't need to have people in the office all the time and the work can still get done.  I gave an example of my nephew, who works for a firm in Uptown Charlotte.  He just moved from Charlotte to Charleston.  They let him do it.  He's never coming back to Charlotte.  His Uptown office is permanently vacated.  I also gave the example of the agency I work for.  Since COVID we have closed our office and become permanently remote.  All of us.  Our employees are now spreading out all over the country.  Some people "laughed" at my comment.  Those people want to live in a fantasy and not face facts.  Yeah, Charlotte will continue to grow, or at least the Charlotte region will, but not as fast.  And sadly it seems it's going reach a point where it doesn't grow the same way, which is sad.  And the environment and animal species will likely be punished for it.  And probably American cities also.  We'll see.  I just hope urban planners can come up with creative ways to entice people back.

https://www.wfae.org/business/2022-07-28/data-show-more-people-leaving-mecklenburg-than-moving-to-the-county

BUMP

"The St. Louis Fortune 50 company cited a 'fundamental shift in the way people work' as the reason for its decision. These days, almost 90% of its workforce is fully remote or working in some sort of hybrid environment."

https://charlotte.axios.com/305953/centene-cancels-plans-for-its-1-billion-regional-headquarters-in-charlotte/

[Blue_Devil]

On 8/19/2022 at 2:23 PM, JacksonH said:

BUMP

"The St. Louis Fortune 50 company cited a 'fundamental shift in the way people work' as the reason for its decision. These days, almost 90% of its workforce is fully remote or working in some sort of hybrid environment."

https://charlotte.axios.com/305953/centene-cancels-plans-for-its-1-billion-regional-headquarters-in-charlotte/

Yah, the insurance companies have made that switch. Interestingly finance has not. You are going to see a doubling down by the finance companies soon, with many of them establishing consequence models for not showing up to the office when you are supposed to