The economy and its effects on Charlotte

[monsoon]

I second that. I've gotten many truckloads of mulch, fill dirt and compost from Compost Central on West Blvd. and it's very cheep and clean: 1 cu. yd. of compost or mulck for $25

[Charlotte_native]

Thought this was an interesting article. I've been told, and really have seen, that the in-migration to Charlotte wasn't stopping because of the economy, appears this is true.

http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-...7&GT1=35000

[monsoon]

^It's a badly written article as the author starts out referring to the MSAs the confuses it with city population. Charlotte's MSA covers 3000+ sq miles. However if you believe it, then the Charlotte metro is no longer the largest in the state. That distinction now belongs to Raleigh according to the article. I think their numbers are wrong.

[Charlotte_native]

The point, to me, was that the in-migration we've seen for years is still taking place. I've known this as almost anyone awake would -- there are constantly new folks everywhere, but regardless of the writers accuracy Charlotte's population continues to grow despite the economy.

Personally, just this year, I've had four family members move here from Atlanta, 3 co-workers move here from Detroit, and have neighbors from Buffalo, Minnesota, and Florida.

[monsoon]

^Correction it is the 6 county MSA. The numbers are not about the actual city of Charlotte.

[voyager12]

Our downward spiral may have slowed a bit but the ax fell again today. Found out this afternoon that I have lost two mainstay dogwalking clients that work at the same small financial services firm. I have visited them for years, from day one. An anectdote and it's obviously a worse day for them but the pain does riccochet outward.

[HopHead]

US Bancorp is starting to make a presence in Charlotte... They tapped some former Wachovia execs to open a Capital Markets and Corp Banking office uptown, leasing some temp space in Hearst before they find a permanent home. I believe the Corp Banking arm for the Southeast will be based here. Right now there are about 100 or so US Bank employees in the area and they are looking to add to that with this expansion.

BTW - didn't know where else to post this so but figured this would work.

[hokiehigh]

Great news. I've heard US Bank is a good one to work for. They are pretty risk adverse and came out of this mess better than most.

[tozmervo]

The March Case-Shiller index was released today, and while the overall numbers are pretty darned crappy (18.7% drop in home prices year over year), Charlotte and Denver both posted slight February to March price gains. Still way down year-to-year, but CLT is at least showing a bit more strength compared to its metropolitan peers.

[Charlotte_native]

They were insistant on stating this cannot be construed as a trend, but decent news regardless, March saw a 0.3 increase in home prices in the Charlotte market. Case-Shiller index and other indicators are showing what many have 'felt' in the market -- an end of the free for all fall in many markets, Charlotte included.

In the uptown condo market, per the MLS, 58 new units have gone on the market thus far in May and 23 have gone under contract for the same period.

Of those that have gone under contract the prices range from $139,900 to $1,550,000 with most being between $250,000 - $300,000. 9 closed in the month of April (we'll have to wait for May's #'s) with only one being a foreclosure. Pretty much all were priced lower than similar units last year -- average about 8% - 10% lower. Prices ranged from $160,000 - $615,000, average being around $250,000.

Dilworth has been basically sitting still for months -- numbers for May for single family homes: 16 new listings, 9 under contract. 4 homes closed in April, prices were $333,000, $517,000, $555,000, and $1,100,000. One of them was a new construction, builder forclosure -- just over 4000 SF and it was the one that sold for $333,000!

Before too much is read into these numbers, May is traditionally one of the best sales months annually so this could easily end in the next month or two. It will be interesting to watch the next couple of months.

[monsoon]

^Thanks for reminding me as the Observer is very bad about cherry picking a number and using it to support a pre-determined conclusion. Keep in mind the following "To be eligible to be included in the home price indices, a house must be asingle-family dwelling. Condominiums and co-ops are specifically excluded" It calculated from the sales price from properties that have "re-sold twice".

I am always suspicious when the Observer does a story that report change in terms of percentage without giving any of the real numbers behind it.

So I looked up what this means. First the index is for the entire 6 county metro area, not the city of Charlotte, and it only applies to single family detached homes as noted above The Observer made this sound like the city of Charlotte. And because this index does not include condos, this means that for Charlotte and especially in places like downtown, the representation is incorrect. The city has a much higher percentage of condo homes relative to the total in the city. The Observer conveniently doesn't mention this. The best you can determine from this index is what did prices do in suburban Metrolina.

Now what about the numbers? Well the Observer did not use the seasonally adjusted numbers. When that is done, then prices actually dropped in Charlotte as well. But not by much. Prices fell from Feb to Mar by 0.04%. Prices on this index have been falling since August 2007 (when they peaked in Charlotte0

[Charlotte_native]

NPR did a story today about national home sales and prices and there are signs of improvement in many places. You can say they, and/or the Observer, are cherry picking numbers, but they gladly reported bad numbers, prices, and sales for two years now.

[monsoon]

^And your point relative to what I posted is........? I gave the facts behind the numbers. You didn't address any of it.

[tozmervo]

^Thanks for reminding me as the Observer is very bad about cherry picking a number and using it to support a pre-determined conclusion. Keep in mind the following "To be eligible to be included in the home price indices, a house must be asingle-family dwelling. Condominiums and co-ops are specifically excluded" It calculated from the sales price from properties that have "re-sold twice".

I am always suspicious when the Observer does a story that report change in terms of percentage without giving any of the real numbers behind it.

So I looked up what this means. First the index is for the entire 6 county metro area, not the city of Charlotte, and it only applies to single family detached homes as noted above The Observer made this sound like the city of Charlotte. And because this index does not include condos, this means that for Charlotte and especially in places like downtown, the representation is incorrect. The city has a much higher percentage of condo homes relative to the total in the city. The Observer conveniently doesn't mention this. The best you can determine from this index is what did prices do in suburban Metrolina.

Now what about the numbers? Well the Observer did not use the seasonally adjusted numbers. When that is done, then prices actually dropped in Charlotte as well. But not by much. Prices fell from Feb to Mar by 0.04%. Prices on this index have been falling since August 2007 (when they peaked in Charlotte0

[monsoon]

The Observer specifically says "Charlotte area" and "Charlotte region." At no point did they say "city of Charlotte." ....

[tozmervo]

Oh come on? You are trying to portray the article as being deceptive when it is not. It cites many of the caveats behind the numbers. It even goes as far as suggesting that foreclosure activity will result in worse numbers heading into April and May. I don't disagree that the Observer often presents us with excellent examples of crappy journalism, but you're applying your own "pre-determined conclusion" that the Observer has some stake in making things appear rosier than they are.

Are you referring to the $8k tax deduction for new home buyers? That's been available since January 1. Why would it suddenly become a factor in March and not in February?

[Charlotte_native]

Some areas for comparisons sake (only posting to show some raw data, making no claims one way or another about it) -- data for this year from 1/1/2009 to present, then 1/1/2008 - 5/28/2008 -- snapshots of activity, sales prices, percentages of drops for those two periods from various parts of the greater Charlotte market:

Myers Park Homes:

09 = 20 sold, average price $740,261, avg days on market 120, lowest sale $346,850 , highest $1,535,000

08 = 144 sold, average price $898,838, avg days on market 87, lowest sale $200,000, highest $2,720,000

Uptown Condos:

09 = 31 sold, average price $388,013, Avg 98 days on the market, lowest sale $125,000, highest $3,191,615

08 = 110 sold, average price $332,932, Avg 100 days on market, lowest sale $156,750, highest $1,215,000

Providence Country Club Homes:

09 = 6 sold, average price $504,000, avg days on market 178, lowest sale $397, highest $615,000

08 = 32 sold, average price $584,781, avg days on market 94, lowest sale $336,000, highest $748,000

Huntersville Homes:

09 = 194 sold, average price $261,132, avg days on market 116, lowest sale $23,000, highest $3.000,000

08 = 314 sold, average price $288,011, avg days on market 84, lowest sale $65,000, highest $1,640,000

Lake Wylie Homes:

09 = 92 sold, average price $391,865, avg days on market 129, lowest sale $61,500, highest $1,800,000

08 = 131 sold, average price $423,902, avg days on market 143, lowest sale $95,000, highest $1,875,000

Southend/Dilworth Condos:

09 = 24 sold, average sales price $202,440, avg days on market 120, lowest sale $115,000, highest $365,000

08 = 44 sold, average sales price $221,791, avg days on market 105, lowest sale $123,056, highest $485,000

Lake Norman Homes:

09 = 378 sold, average sales price $468,816, avg days on market 116, lowest sale $35,000, highest $2,365,182

08 = 231 sold, average sales price $419,471, avg days on market 154, lowest sale $20,500, highest $1,850,000

Waxhaw Homes:

09 = 177 sold, average sales price $345,767, avg days on market 115, lowest sale $42,000, highest $1,451,500

08 = 254 sold, average sales price $390,258, avg days on market 100, lowest sale $69,000, highest $1,750,000

[monsoon]

......

Are you referring to the $8k tax deduction for new home buyers? That's been available since January 1. Why would it suddenly become a factor in March and not in February?

[monsoon]

This is an interesting interactive map. If you click on the GM supplier button, you will get an idea of how many plants near Charlotte are manufacturing stuff for GM. It's higher than one would think or realize given the lack of coverage. There is a big triangle on there for a GM location that isn't manufacturing based.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...CIAL01/90529004

[Windsurfer]

This is an interesting interactive map. If you click on the GM supplier button, you will get an idea of how many plants near Charlotte are manufacturing stuff for GM. It's higher than one would think or realize given the lack of coverage. There is a big triangle on there for a GM location that isn't manufacturing based.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...CIAL01/90529004

[Spartan]

Thats a great map. It perfectly illustrates the economic multiplier effect that a company has.

[JayGee]

This is an interesting interactive map. If you click on the GM supplier button, you will get an idea of how many plants near Charlotte are manufacturing stuff for GM. It's higher than one would think or realize given the lack of coverage. There is a big triangle on there for a GM location that isn't manufacturing based.

[monsoon]

Filed in the Coming Soon to a Development Near You department.

This is a fascinating story on what has happened to the upscale condo market in NYC. Apparently the high class HQ Marketing Partners firm was unable to sell these $350K condos for over the last year so now the city is turning the building into a homeless shelter. Wonder when they will be resorting to such things here?

[InitialD]

Filed in the Coming Soon to a Development Near You department.

This is a fascinating story on what has happened to the upscale condo market in NYC. Apparently the high class HQ Marketing Partners firm was unable to sell these $350K condos for over the last year so now the city is turning the building into a homeless shelter. Wonder when they will be resorting to such things here?

[atlrvr]

In fairness, I will point out that Crown Heights is, ummm, a "transitional" section of Brooklyn (to be polite), where this kind of luxury far exceeds the surroundings, so I'm not sure I'd use this building as a bellweather for the NYC luxury market.

Otherwise, its better to get some use out of a building as opposed to letting it sit vacant.....of course subsidized at a cost of $2,700 per month per unit....ouch, I'm not sure Charlotte has a $2,700/month apartment. Call this one developers personal bail-out.