Charlotte home prices gaining

Posted on Wed, May. 28, 2008

Home prices here still gaining
The Charlotte region again ranks among the nation's urban markets with appreciating real estate.
STELLA M. HOPKINS
shopkins@charlotteobserver.com
The Charlotte region notched its third month Tuesday as the only one of 20 urban markets nationwide still showing rising home prices.
Area prices rose a little less than 1 percent for the 12 months through March, according to the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That's less of an increase than in previous months but compares favorably with a 14 percent national decline on what is often a person's largest investment.
In addition to the annual gain, Charlotte also was the only one of two markets in which March prices rose slightly compared with the previous month. The monthly upticks in Charlotte and Dallas are the first for any of the 20 markets since September, according to the reports.
The two hardest hit areas – Las Vegas and Miami – have seen annual declines of about 25 percent. Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco also posted drops of more than 20 percent.
By another broad measure, Charlotte area home prices gained 6 percent during the same time frame. That put the Charlotte region at No. 14 out of 292 markets ranked by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which evaluates a somewhat different pool of sales. Both indexes evaluate repeat sales of single-family homes, an important gauge of changes in value.
The OFHEO quarterly index released last week shows Charlotte with a five-year return of 29 percent. The index also shows that markets with recent declines still have much higher long-term gains than Charlotte. Miami, for example, has a five-year return of 92 percent while Las Vegas is up 65 percent.
Charlotte has so far been spared steep declines because the area didn't experience the sharp gains during the nation's real estate bubble.