The news came out yesterday : home sales from April to May plummeted after the expiration of the home buyer tax credit.  The numbers were as bad as they’ve been since the Commerce Department started tracking this data in 1963.

I probably had 5 or 6 friends give me this news in one way or another, and then the talking heads on TV dissected it ad nauseam.  So, naturally I had to see what the story is locally in the Charlotte area.

Sales dropped from April to May, but only about 5%.  However, over that same period, the average price of those sales rose by about 4%!  Note that the graph we’re attaching shows June data, but it is still incomplete (the data is through June 23).

We’ve been hearing bad news in our business for about 2 years now, but it’s critical to remind your clients that market stats are a local thing.  Things might be awful in one area of the country, but that doesn’t mean they’re as bad here in Charlotte.  The fact is, we never saw a value “spike” here like they saw in many areas (such as Florida and California) and so prices have been rather stable, even in the face of a recession.

So, get on the horn and reassure your clients, and feel free to use our graphs if they’ll help.

Posted via email from Charlotte real estate technology, IDX, market data