Real Estate Trends March 2018

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association provides monthly reports on residential real estate market activity for the Charlotte Metro region based on data from Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CarolinaMLS). The Charlotte Metro region, which this report is based on, includes 12 counties in North Carolina and four counties in South Carolina.

The Charlotte Metro region year-over-year home sales in March decreased 11.2 percent, with 3,866 properties sold compared to 4,354 properties sold in March 2017.

Home sales were up significantly (40.3 percent) compared to the previous month (February 2018).

The average sales price in March 2018 ($279,726) increased 4.6 percent compared to March 2017 ($267,340), while the median sales price ($235,000) increased 7.1 percent compared to March 2017 ($219,500). Compared to the February 2018, the average and the median sales price increased 5.7 percent and 3.5 percent respectively.

The average list price in March 2018 ($346,323) increased 6.0 percent compared to March 2017 ($326,754), bringing the percent of original list price received measure to 97.2 percent, a slight increase of 0.4 percent compared to the same period last year. Pending sales in March 2018 (5,181) rose 7.2 percent compared to March 2017. Compared to the previous month (February 2018), pending sales increased 24.6 percent.

“Unfortunately, sales declines are a natural result of too few homes for sale, and we’ve been talking about persistently low inventory for the past three years,” said 2018 Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association/CarolinaMLS president Jason Gentry. “Lower supply generally puts pressure on prices and often leads to increased demand and homes spending less time on market, and we’re consistently seeing this scenario play out across the region. Our hope is that more sellers will start to list and take advantage of the ready and willing buyer base.”

New residential listings (5,949) decreased 4.5 percent in March 2018 compared to the same period last year. March 2018 new listing counts compared to the previous month increased 28.6 percent. Inventory continued to fall, with the number of homes for sale down 23.5 percent compared to March 2017, which left the Charlotte region with 8,208 properties for sale at report time, or 2.0 months of supply of inventory. A year ago in March 2017 the region had 10,726 properties for sale, or 2.7 months of supply.

The average number of days a property was on the market from the time it was listed until it closed (list to close) was 100 days, which is five days fewer than it was in March 2017. Days on Market, the metric that accrues for “Active” and “Under Contract-Show” statuses, totaled 50 days, which is seven days fewer than March 2017.