Excerpts from article on Charlotte.com 12/27/2007,by ALLEN NORWOOD, Home Editor
Charlotte bucks U.S.in rising home prices. As other metro areas struggle, region sees 4.3% jump, based on national index. As home prices tumble across the country, Charlotte is one of just a few metro areas where values are rising over last year. The reasons: Steady job growth and historically moderate home price appreciation.
Charlotte's home prices rose 4.3 percent in October compared with the same month last year -- more than in any other city in Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index. Just two other cities, Portland, Ore., and Seattle, saw increases.
Overall, home prices in the index of 20 metro areas fell by 6.1 percent from last October. Miami and Tampa saw the biggest price declines, with dips of 12 percent. Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego also posted double-digit declines.
Not all the news in the 20-city index was good for Charlotte, though. Every city in the index, including Charlotte, saw prices decline from September to October. "No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," Robert Shiller, who helped create the index, said in a statement.
Dot Munson of Re/Max Executive Realty, president of the regional Realtors said, "We are seeing a longer time on the market, but people are not willing to give their homes away to sell them." In October of last year, the average home sold through Carolina Multiple Listing Services remained on the market 118 days before closing. In October 2007, average time on market had increased to almost 124 days. The number of homes on the market longer than 121 days crept up 3.5 percent over the same period.
Munson agrees with national economists that a growing inventory of homes will have to work its way through the market before housing rebounds, and that's not going to happen right away, even in Charlotte.
