Is Charlotte’s hot real estate market cooling down? The trends say yes. Here’s why

Prospective home buyers navigating Charlotte’s hot real estate market may have a reason for optimism, new information on the local real estate market shows.

Although the median home sales price in Charlotte is still up compared to last year, the metric fell slightly from June to July, the latest data available from the real estate firm RE/MAX’s National Housing Report.

That follows trends at the national level, where RE/MAX reports the median sales price also ticked down slightly from June to July.

Here’s what to know about the state of the Charlotte real estate market and what experts say buyers and sellers can expect in the coming months:

What are homes selling for in Charlotte?

The median home sales price in Charlotte in July was $395,000, according to RE/MAX’s report, down 4.1% from June’s median of $412,000.

July’s figure is still up year-over-year, by 16.2%, from July 2021’s median of $339,945.

Median listing prices followed a similar trend in Charlotte, RE/MAX’s data shows. The median listing price in Charlotte in July was $400,000, down 3.1% from June’s median of $412,750 but up 15.9% from July 2021’s median of $345,000.

“A seller cannot just put their house on the market and expect any price … We’re seeing buyers having a better positioning to work on the price and take some time to make decisions as opposed to those split decisions they had to make within a few minutes of being in a home earlier this year,” Tiffany Johannes, the broker-in-charge and general manager of Charlotte’s RE/MAX Executive, said.

At the national level, RE/MAX put the median sales price for July at $415,000. That’s the first time, the real estate firm said, that metric has fallen since month-over-month since January.

How many homes are for sale in Charlotte?

Charlotte has been in a seller’s market — where there are more folks looking to buy a home than sell their home, driving up prices. But the latest data from RE/MAX shows the tide may be turning.

The number of new listings in Charlotte decreased from June to July, down 6.8%. Still, the metric is up year-over-year by 0.5%.

And Charlotte’s active inventory, per RE/MAX, was up 29.3% from June to July and up 79.5% in the last 12 months.

Homes in Charlotte stayed on the market for an average of 21 days in July, the report added.

Is the Charlotte housing market cooling down?

Johannes said that although plenty are still looking to buy homes in the Charlotte area, she’s seen more buyers being able to take their time in their search.

“In today’s market, we are seeing that there aren’t as many buyers competing as there were,” she said. “And so if someone was sitting on the sidelines because they didn’t want to compete, and they had the wherewithal, they definitely are getting back in the market and finding homes in areas where they’re very happy to be where they were seeing bidding competitions previously.”

But, she added, that doesn’t mean folks interested in buying should expect home prices to tank in the near future.

“Builders and resale can’t stock inventory fast enough to meet the needs for all the buyers, and so until that happens, I think we’re going to see a modest increase in the appreciation of houses,” Johannes said. “I don’t think it’s going to be what we’ve seen in the last couple of years, but I don’t think we’re going to see a decline or that trajectory down that we saw during the Great Recession.”