HOT PROPERTY: An estate at 19117 Davidson Concord Road in Davidson has sold for $2.15 million. The 7,600 square foot home has a private guest cottage, saltwater pool and an outdoor kitchen, all on two acres. There are five garages as well. Lori Jackson had the listing; the buyers were represented by Dixie Dean and Christina Stone.

June 10. By Dave Yochum. While the the S&P Dow Jones Indices show declines for five cities—Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego—home price appreciation is doing just fine in Charlotte and the surrounding suburbs.

It’s surprising housing isn’t still off the charts: Mortgage rates are at 4 percent, unemployment is close to a 50-year low.

PAT RILEY

Other markets might have become super-heated, but not us. Post-recession appreciation rates are falling to historical norms, said Pat Riley, CEO of Allen Tate. But builders are still building only half as much as what they used to.

There are mixed market signals for sure—Riley said renters are taking longer and longer to get out of their leases—inventories are still low, but growing.

“List price/sale price gaps are growing,” Riley says, suggesting the super-premiums around pricing is over and done.  Inventories are growing. Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are squatting, he said.

With prices here up 2.1 percent, Charlotte home price appreciation was in the middle of the pack among the top 20 US markets from March of 2018 to March this year. In Las Vegas they rose an unsustainable 6.3 percent.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S census divisions, reported a 3.7 percent annual gain in March, down from 3.9 percent in February.

The pace of home price gains continues to slow, with year-over-year price gains in most cities shrinking.

KAREN KROTKI

David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones, said double-digit annual gains have vanished. One year ago, Seattle had a stunning 13 percent year over year gain.

Karen Krotki, the new managing broker at Premier Sotheby’s in Cornelius, did her research before moving here from New Tampa, Fla. to run this office.

New Tampa is a rising growth market—much the same as Lake Norman and Cabarrus. “I wanted to make sure I would be experiencing the same here,” she said.

Net in-migration is in the forecast for years to come. “It’s desirable because of the climate, taxes and the amenities, attracting a lot of high-end people…I see no decline in this area at all. The attraction is growing among the high end,” Krotki said.

Before Florida, she lived in the Fairfield County, Ct. area where prices—and taxes—are much higher.

When a reporter said what might be $1 million here would be $3 million up there, she said $5 million was more like it.

Sotheby’s LKN is coming on strong. The Cornelius office just signed The Watermark luxury condominium project off West Catawba where prices start at $800,000.

“This area has a wealth of opportunity,” Krotki said.