Jonathan Osman - Charlotte / Matthews NC

Tonight, the Charlotte City Council will meet to discuss whether or not to increase the water rates for city water users in Charlotte. The Charlotte area was in a severe drought last year and city officials made pleas to residents to cut back on their water use voluntarily. Some did but it was deemed not enough so mandatory water restrictions were put in place. The restrictions prevented lawn watering, using a pressure washer, and even washing your car at home. There were even ads that played on the radio that said showers should be reduced to half and the a bucket should be placed under the shower head while the water was heating up...to be used for dish washing. Yuck.

So Charlotteans did their part and saved so much water that now Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities (known as CMUD) is now facing a budget shortfall from a lack of water use. Therefore, they have taken their request to the city council and its the council to decide how much you're going to pay. The figures released so far is that the average homeowner should see an increase of $6 per month on their water bill. Six dollars isn't a lot but why not cut back on the budget for CMUD? I'm sure that running stupid commercials about recycling bath water and only flushing solid waste (if its yellow, let it mellow; if its brown, flush it down) should save plenty. After all, why does the government need to advertise to me?

Jonathan Osman
Charlotte NC Homes, Charlotte Real Estate

Single Family Homes in Union County North Carolina including:

Matthews, Stallings, Indian Trail, Weddington, Monroe, Marvin, Wesley Chapel, Mineral Springs, Marshville, Wingate, and Peachland

Data gathered for February 1 2008 - February 29 2008 from the CMLS

In February 2008, there were 665 new single family units added to the overall housing inventory in Union County. This number represents a 10% increase from February 2007 and a 15% increase from 2006.

Only 250 single family units were placed under contract in February 2008, which is 41.6% less than the year earlier (354) and 49.6% less than 2006 (374).

While the pending units were down substantially, February saw only a 14% (182) decline in the number of annual sales from 2007 (208) and 41% (257) decline from 2006.

The average sold price rebounded in February to 97.73% of the asking price. This is an increase from a month earlier where sellers were only receiving 96.6% of their asking price however down 1.17% from a year earlier.

The average days on market (DOM) was down from January but up from a year earlier. In February, the average Days on Market was 96, 26% longer than 2007 (76), but only up 1.052% over 2007 (95)

The average sold price dropped slightly in February to $246,787, which is 1.85% less than a year earlier ($251,375) but up 5.3% over 2006 ($234,360)

So what happened?

I believe that there are two major factors at work here that caused these declines. First would be the rise in builder inventories and significant price reductions some have performed on their inventories. The second is the credit markets. Taken as a whole, these numbers are still very strong inspite of the market forces. For years in Union County, builders were allowed to build at almost a breakneck speed. Just drive down Providence Road and see how many "New Home" directional signs one finds. There, you will see a partially finished community and homes in inventory that the builder is liquidating. Some lower end builders removed amenities to reduce the entry price of their homes. However the erosion of the credit markets have forced some builders to lower prices, which puts a drag on the housing market in general as buyers have a pleathora to choose from.

If you're a seller and you're wondering why your home hasn't sold, I would contend that its not 2006 anymore and ask if you have a 2008 marketing plan? In a market with about 10% of the available inventory receiving a contract, its imperative that your home stands out from the others. This means focusing on the 85% of buyers looking on the internet with high quality photos, vivid descriptions, broker open houses, public open houses, staging, etc.

From a personal standpoint, these numbers were a bit of a surpise even to me only because I haven't felt a slowdown. My listings have all sold quickly for very close to asking, my phone hasn't stopped ringing with buyers looking for a home, yet everyone is crying that the sky is falling. Also, the much-needed expansion of the FHA loan limits should greatly increase the number of sales of move-up homes for the remainder of the year. The downside is that the provision that allowed the change was only set in place for a year so write your congressman and tell them to stop monkeying around with your money.

While I would expect this spring and summer to not be another 2006 or 2007, I would expect for brisk sales of homes that are marketable, increased buying opportunities thanks to the increased FHA loan limits, and decreased new construction inventories as builders have already begun to cut-back on their forecasts.

Jonathan Osman
Charlotte NC Homes, Charlotte Real Estate

The Charlotte Observer reported this past weekend that Grand Asia is taking over the the space vacated by Winn-Dixie in the shopping plaza on the corner of Pleasant Plains Road and Potter Road. This is huge since this will be the largest Asian grocery store in the Charlotte area. The store will feature a cafe, butcher shop, and cashiers that speak any number of Asian languages.

The town of Stallings is also in line to receive is second Harris Teeter and is awaiting the opening of its very own Elementary school next fall.

Have you watched local government programming at all? From time to time when I'm trying to fall asleep, I will turn on the government channel on public television. Puts me right now. Here in Charlotte, they didn't want to have yet another boring government show so I decided to make a program about local government called The Mecklenburgers. The show features a catchy theme song, paid actors, and every episode is about a specific department of county government.

The show is more than a little controversial for a few reasons. First, the show costs a lot of money to produce, close to a half million dollars a year. Secondly, the show is not on public television but rather on regular television (WAXN - a UPN station) so the programming time must be purchased. Finally, no one watches the show. In a recent report on another station, the reporter confronted the producer with the facts that no one watches the show and the producer denied the claim. Using fuzzy math, they claimed they had nearly 2 million viewers for their time slot.

There's not that many people in Mecklenburg county watching WAXN at 6:30 on a Saturday evening. In fact, that time slot is usually dominated by college basketball or football, not government programming.

The show has won a few Emmy's in the category of "informational / instruction" category so I guess it isn't all bad....right?

Thanks Mecklenburg county for showing everyone you know how to waste money in award winning fashion. Click here to see the show for youself.

Sincerely;
Jonathan Osman
The Charlotte House Hunter
Charlotte NC Homes, Charlotte Real Estate