Executive Summary

Executive Summary

This is the fourth annual State of Housing in Charlotte Report issued by the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of housing in Charlotte and the surrounding area since the last report was written. This report provides a complete overview of what happened in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic from January 2020 to September 2022. We also try to provide a long-term view of the dynamics of the housing market over the last two decades, that is, from 2001 to 2022.

We first summarize the pandemic housing market in the region as follows:

• House prices increased at an unprecedented rate during the pandemic. The median home prices in the Charlotte market increased from $273,500 in January 2020 to $420,000 in September 2022. • The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the supply side of the housing market. The number of housing units added is much less than the increase in the number of housing units in 2020 and 2021.

• While the housing market continues to be tight, it has shown some signs of softening since the summer of 2022. The median number of days on the market has increased from three days in May 2022 to nine days in September 2022. • Houses priced affordably have become extremely difficult to find. Only 3.8% of the houses sold are under $150,000 and only about 25% of the houses sold are under $300,000. • Middle-income housing affordability is becoming a significant challenge for the region. The rising interest rates and house prices have made housing quickly unaffordable in the Charlotte region. • Rental rates also increased dramatically during the pandemic. In 2021, the average effective rent increased by $198 (or 16.6%) per unit.

I. Introduction

The State of Housing in Charlotte Report 2022