Charlotte-The Daily Flow

Matthews homes for sale in Brookhaven range in price from $335,000 up to almost a million dollars! Stunning beauties by John Wieland Builders set in the wooded countryside of Union County, with its elementary school right next door!

These estate sized homes are gorgeous with anywhere from 3000 to 6000 heated square feet and upgrades galore! This community also has quite a few basement homes-a rare find in Charlotte.

Resort style amenities in Brookhaven include an aquatics center with a giant waterslide, lazy river, geysers, plus tennis and basketball courts, a recreational play field, and children’s playground.  The Brookhaven clubhouse has a piano lounge, dining and kitchen area, a fitness room, and a media room.

On the edge of Matthews North Carolina, Brookhaven is convenient with great access to shopping, restaurants and top notch schools.

The Union County School set up is: Antioch Elementary School, Weddington Middle and High School. (The school systems are always growing so this school set up may change). You will also find a top notch selection of private schools in the near by area.

Please give us a call when you’re ready to get down to some serious home shopping, until then, we invite you to enjoy our pre-set real estate home searches!


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• Brookhaven Homes for Sale
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Claude Cross 704-975-1733
Jane Cross     704-608-0228
Broker/Owners of Homes By Cross, Inc.
 
We’ve been providing professional Charlotte area real estate services since 1994, and would love the chance to earn your business-call us today!  We’re home to NO-COST (yes, free) buyer representation.

So it passed.

The once in a lifetime event had come back again! This time, bigger and better than ever!

This is not knocking it. I, for one, was in strong hopes, that the tax incentive would be delayed until this one had run its course. It should give us all a bit of prosperity in the Spring. It should help give all our home sellers a bit of relief-and our buyers more opportunity.

The new tax incentive...April contract, closing in June...seems to correlate perfectly with our market.

The old plan in the Charlotte real estate market, was to just put the for sale sign in the yard sometime in March, sell the house by June....run to the beach for the Fourth of July....back to have the kids prepped for school in August, and ahhh, life was good. Real estate was easy.

Charlotte has had an extended period of low hanging fruit. We've got nothin' to complain about. But we do need to do a bit of re-configuring....

This time around, the house needs to be on the market by the  latter part of January or first part of February...in order to beat some of that heavy spring competition.

Free advise: Start getting it cleaned up and prepared for Spring battle, if you plan on being at the beach on the next Fourth of July!

The Elizabeth neighborhood is a very fine, leafy old section of Charlotte, just bridled with charm (and ghosts).

It is, by far, the most haunted neighborhood in Charlotte; even the main green space -- Independence Park -- is deemed to be haunted. It also has the distinction of being Charlotte's first public park (1904).

'Halloween Week', they have a lighting of the pumpkins...all are welcome to set their pumpkins up on the stands and marvel at one another's creations. Why not? Elizabeth can be spooky!

Elizabeth was developed in the early 20th century. Her mature trees create a gorgeous canopy over the streets;  large camellia bushes show off beautiful blooms; homes and businesses mingle, woven tightly together by rooty sidewalks and its haunted tales of those that have gone before us.

The Elizabeth neighborhood is tucked in amongst the following: Randolph Road/4th Street to the Southwest; Independence Boulevard to the West and North; and a creek on its East.  Two main avenues within this area are Elizabeth Avenue and 7th Street.

Along 7th Street there are numerous old houses that have been converted into shops, offices, and restaurants and small apartment buildings. Classics like Hawthorne's NY Pizza and Bar, Loft 1523 (a cool Martini Bar), Philospher's Stone Tavern  and Carpe Diem are all lined up just waiting to take your order!

Then there's  The Cajun Queen, she's supposedly haunted-either by the old owner's maid or a lush (depending on who you talk to). It serves up an authentic taste of New Orleans food and Dixieland jazz and beer.

The Elizabeth neighborhood offers a rich selection of beautiful Victorian homes, bungalows and historical houses. Here, single family residential prices can reach over a million dollars, whereas a condo can be purchased for around $175,000 or so.

To be sure, this is an easy walking section of town. Close to the hustle and bustle of uptown Charlotte for nightlife, yet filled with it's own neighborhood pubs, for those evenings when you'd rather hang out 'where everybody knows your name'.

Centrally located, Elizabeth's Independence Park is hidden a little below street level. It offers great walking paths, beautiful gardens, benches and statues. The true neighborhood side of the park can be found on it's southern end. It offers peace, tranquility...and a beautiful rose garden.

And, then, there's the northern end...the northern end offers plenty of activity! There are ball fields, courts, play ground equipment, and a track..it is also on this end, that Elizabeth Traditional Elementary School is located.  The northern end of Independence Park is a fantastic spot to see a spectacular view of the city...especially good for watching Uptown's  firework displays on the Fourth of July!

Back in 1897, Elizabeth College, a small Lutheran women's college , was here. It is how the area came to be known as Elizabeth. The college has since been replaced by Charlotte's main Presbyterian Hospital. 

Elizabeth's speedy development occured just five years later, in 1902, when the trolley line was completed...and then she was promptly annexed into Charlotte in 1907. 


The neighborhoods population hovers around 4,000 today........ghosts not included.

Charlotte Real Estate housing report*...whew!

We're not reeling, but we're not moving upwards, like we had been for the past four months.

September closings (1,945) were down by 12.4%  over the month of August (2,221).  Even our average sales price dipped down by 6%. September sales averaged $196,760 whereas August sales averaged $209, 245.

Sales are down, but not down and out.

This is not a unique performance for the housing market this time of year. The fall is a traditional season with a traditional decline in home sales and real estate activity.
 
For the Charlotte market, we fared no differently.  Contracts (2,199) for September 2009 have declined by 9.7%  over the fine month of August where home contracts totaled 2,434.

The average time a home spent on the market was only three days less than last month...which was 115.7 days...this from its "active" status until the time it went "pending (under contract)".

In the national scheme of things, that is overall pretty darn good!  Still, we have a lot of Charlotte homes coming on the market. In September alone, 4,701 new residential real estate listings came aboard! The market changes daily.

Charlotte sellers listed pricing has come down a bit as well. In the month of August, the average list price of a "sold" property was $234,504...and in September this price had dropped down 6.2% to $219,925. Quite a dip in just one month!

The first time home buyer tax credit, has helped stimulate not just one, but two levels of housing.
The first time home buyer, and the first time home seller (who then became a second time home buyer). As seen by our dip in pending residential real estate contract numbers, the surge that took place, has pretty much run its course.  

For first time home buyers that procrastinated, you may have just lost out on one of the best deals going. (Unless, of course, it comes back again.)

Why? The ability to get a loan processed to close by November 30, 2009,  has just about come to an end. The loan processors typically need a good solid 45 days to make it happen!

Was the tax credit a success?  You be the judge.  The National Association of Realtors®, states as many as 350,000 home sales this year can be directly attributed to the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit.

That's a lot of first time home buyers, who may never have even contemplating owning a home before.

The big question? "Will there be a tax credit extension?"

The big answer, "Maybe, maybe not." 

If you were one of the many first time home buyers that did not have your 3.5% saved up for a down payment, hopefully, the stimulus package has motivated you to get that savings put together (just in case).

And, those that were locked in to leases, perhaps your lease is coming up for renewal. Go month to month (just in case).

Buyer beware...if the $8,000 tax credit comes back again...hopefully, you, too, will then take part in the American dream, your own home.

Until then, it is something wonderful to dream about and plan for!

*The numbers used in this September 2009 residential realty report became available on October 8, 2009, courtesy of the Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association based on Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CMLS) data covering the Charlotte region

The Charlotte real estate market is slow, all energies put forth are towards the accumulation of more 'work'. Like many in or related to the real estate industry, there is currently a lack of an 'immediate need' for our services as folks continue to stay in their holding pattern. The daily jog of life as a Realtor, once very busy, is now just an easy lumbering pace for us.

So, here I sit.
Poised.

An early retirement to join my sister in Florida would be nice...but she is rather costly to hang out with...so...

No work-No retirement.

In its place, I have been learning more and more (and ever more) about the workings of the Internet. This, I have found, to be very intriguing, frustrating, mind-boggling, challenging, and quite addictive.


The biggest thing that I have learned: Had I known the amount of technical knowledge that I lacked, I would not have bothered to jump in. Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power (who said that?). Very true statement, and for all its trouble, I am still glad I jumped in.

Fortunately, we have all the tools we need to harness some of this knowledge. It's called Time on my Hands and the Internet-and Patience.

My estimate is that our listings, our Charlotte homes for sale, will pick up some speed...prior to me pulling all my hair out...give it a few more months!