Charlotte’s Hottest Neighborhood Is…

 

According to Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin, Starmount is the hottest neighborhood in Charlotte this year especially for potential homebuyers.

Starmount, located east of South Boulevard, currently leads because of the affordability and convenience it gives to its residents. The 28210 zip code is followed by South End, Fourth Ward, Elizabeth and center city.

Redfin states that the median home sales price in Starmount, which is between Archdale Drive and Arrowood Road, is $161,000.

Charlotte Regional Realtors Association states that such amount is lower than the $180,000 median sales price on the 3,050 existing Charlotte units sold last December. Furthermore, Redfin cited that Starmount homes spend a median of 66 days on the market.

“Starmount is already getting a lot of buyer action and the development is going to be on fire in 2015,” said Redfin’s Charlotte agent Valli Smith. “Buyers are targeting the area for town homes and old bungalows with character, as well as tearing down older homes and building new ones.”

Smith reveals that Starmount has become more convenient and attractive to a lot of homebuyers because of the light rail expansion and its close proximity to Dilworth and uptown.

Redfin’s analysis of the matter was based on the web traffic of the site’s listings along with the feedback by some of their agents. After which, they made a list of the hottest neighborhoods in 27 metropolitan areas.

The trend of choosing to live in an affordable and convenient neighborhood is quite a change from the past two years, when the most popular areas were urban, expensive and home to the best schools in the area.

“Affordable inventory remained low throughout most of 2014 so homebuyers have to look a bit further afield to find the perfect home without sacrificing the conveniences of being close to an urban center,” Redfin says.

However, it still remains difficult for homebuyers to save for their down payment since housing costs remain to be higher than the wage increases.

The National Association of Realtors also cited that the national median price for existing properties last December was $208,500, which has been the highest since 2007 at $219,000.

As stated earlier, Starmount is the most affordable among Redfin’s list of top five Charlotte neighborhood. Here are their median home price: South End at $310,000, Fourth Ward at $242,000, Elizabeth at $273,000 and center city at $270,000. As for the median days for the property’s stay on the market, South End is at 72 days, Fourth Ward at 76 days, Elizabeth at 69 days, and center city at 78 days.