I am often asked these days if the interest rates have softened the market or when/if the Charlotte real estate market will slow down. In all honesty, we have not seen our buyer clients hedging their primary home purchase because of interest rates. They are simply adjusting their financing options. We are seeing buyer clients close on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages with plans to refinance when the rates shift. Others are putting bigger down payments down to gain a lower rate. Lenders are still busy with purchases, but they have certainly lost a lot of the refinancing business they had when rates were historically low.

 

If you missed my spring market update and what Charlotte was experiencing earlier this year, you can refresh your memory here. Now, as we are deep into the third quarter, Charlotte’s real estate market has in fact slowed down, but it is a normal seasonal shift that we are used to experiencing in these dog days of summer.

 

Showings on our listings are about half of what they were in the spring, days on market are a tad longer, and buyers’ offers are a little less aggressive. But, make no mistake, we are still seeing multiple offers over asking and high levels of interest on all homes priced correctly for the market. Charlotte remains in an inventory crunch. Plus, it’s important to remember that summer pricing is based on all of the spring sale comps. So this slow down doesn’t mean a regression in price, it just merely means the summer market is stabilizing pricing.

 

As we head into fall, we typically expect the market to pick back up. October year-over-year is always a very busy month for us and a great time to buy or sell. There is often more fresh inventory entering the market, a little less buyer competition, and the prices aren’t pushed as hard in the fall as they are in the spring. Looking further ahead, I fully expect Spring of 2023 to push the pricing and boundaries of the market as it does every year in Charlotte (outside of 2020).

 

All in all, it’s still a great time to sell, it’s a tougher time to buy, but it’s not as tough as it will be next spring. Buyers right now and through the rest of 2022 will have a little more leverage than in spring when there was virtually none.

 

If you have any questions specific to your home or neighborhood, don’t hesitate to reach out.

— Genevieve

 

Charlotte Skyline Photo by The 5 and 2 Project.