Every month, I analyze the sale of homes for the preceding month in ten Charlotte local market areas for publication on Realty Times website and Realtor.com. I have been doing these market analyses since March of 2006. Data is taken from both the Carolina Multiple Listing Service and the Piedmont Multiple Listing Service. These analyses are completed on or about the fifteenth of each succeeding month due to the time allowed by the Carolina MLS for agents to enter sold data.
For February, 2009, most submarkets increased units sold over January while continuing to show significant decreases in average selling price compared to twelve months earlier, with only a couple of exceptions. For Mecklenburg County as a whole, including Charlotte and all other towns in the county, the number of homes sold through the MLS increased from 411 in January to 454 single-family homes, and 82 to 115 condos and town homes. January numbers were down significantly from December, so we really did see the effect of the holiday season, and not a trend. February unit sales were 36% lower for single-family and 49% lower for condos and town homes than the monthly unit sales for February of 2008, based on comparing six-month rolling averages to smooth the data. Average selling price was 11.5% below twelve months ago for single-family, and 9% down for condos and town homes, again based on smoothed data.
The other submarkets included in the analysis are Ballantyne, Matthews, Mint Hill, Southwest Charlotte/Mecklenburg, Waxhaw, Weddington, Fort Mill, Rock Hill and Tega Cay. These are each small markets normally, and with the current low level of sales across the entire area, statistics for these markets can be very misleading. The smaller the market, the more variability there is in the data from month to month. For February, all of these submarkets showed a continuing downward trend in units sold compared to February, 2008.
On average selling price, the advantge of 8% rise over twelve months that Matthews registered in January dropped to 2.5% in February, based again on six-month rolling averages. Fort Mill showed a nearly 9% gain on selling price in February. Both these markets are relatively small with only a small number of sales, and both markets having been moving to more expensive homes over the last few years, which may account for these positive bumps in the measurements.
Raw inventory of homes for sale increased in some submarkets and decreased in others in February, but averaged data showed that the trend is still increasing inventory in all submarkets. In the entire Mecklenburg County area, inventory of single-family homes stands at 15 months, and condos and town homes at 23 (14 and 22 respectively with smoothed data). A normal, healthy market is considered to be 5 to 7 months of inventory; our current numbers are still indicative of a severe buyers market, with only a very small portion of homes actually selling.
The advice to sellers is to still price aggressively and make your home the best value in your local area and price range. For buyers, there has never been a better time to buy if you have the credit standing and downpayment money available. FHA loans only require 3.5% up front, and first-time buyers (who have not owned a principal residence in three years) have an especially good opportunity with the 2009 Federal tax credit just passed.
Click here to download an updated Excel spreadsheet containing all the monthly statistics for these submarkets back to March of 2006. We now have three years of data!