High-end home sales in Charlotte on hold - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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million mansion in Myers Park. With its marbled floors and wine the 5,700-square-foot spec home on Queens Road West was builtf long before the financial crisis reshaped Charlotte’s economixc landscape. It might get two showings a but so far no offers close to theaskinh price. For Realtors such as Mitchenefr and the sellersthey represent, this is the new realit for high-end homes. It’s a segment of the real estate markef that has been painfullyslow — and which expertse say is holding back a broadetr housing recovery. The number of home sales above $750,000, or those consideredf high-end by the , has plummeted. And for multimillion-dollar things are even slower.
“Yoh barely even get a showing onthose properties,” says a co-owner of real estater firm . While Realtors say they are startin g to see a thaw for homez at the lower end of theluxury market, the numbersz for the Charlotte area have been stark. Accordinb to data from the , only 75 homex priced above $750,000 sold in the firstg quarter inthe 10-county service area for That’se down 54% from the 162 propertieds sold in the first quartee of 2008. And it’s down 69% from the 245 sold in the firsty quarterof 2007.
That’s a more dramatic slowdowhn than the real estate market which sawa 38% drop in closing s in the first quarter from a year according to the association. And the higherf the price, the worse it Charlotte real estate consultant Chuck Graham notes that in a total of 490 homes pricecabove $875,000 sold in Mecklenburg and seven surrounding counties. In this year’s first that number was 39, putting the markeft on pace for just over 150 such closingethis year. That’s a 70% plunge. The high-end real estate Graham says, is “reallh in more difficult shape than theoveralk market. And the higher you go up in the more distressedthe market.
” He believed the slowdown stems in large part from the downturjn in the financial-services industry and the impact it has had on would-bd buyers of luxury homes. “All the highest-paying jobs in the marketf are the most distressed at the Marilyn Hartley, whose firm specializes in neighborhoodsx such as Myers Park, Eastover and says activity has startef to pick up. Still, the near collapse and sale ofWachoviaz Corp. has had an outsized impact on high-end she says. “It really crushed us,” Hartlety says. “Wachovia going down really hurt Charlotted as far asthe high-end market They just let so many people go, and there’s so many houses on the market.
You woulf think it would be a buyer’s but the sellers need that so they’re holding out for it. It’sx tough.” Hartley says deals have closed recentlyg on some homes inthe $1.4 million to $1.5 millio range, “but none of the great big ones have sold.” According to the National Associationb of Realtors, the nationwide supplgy of homes priced above $750,000 has risenm to 41.1 months from 18.7 monthsw in 2007, and sales are only half of what they The trade association contends the rates on jumbop mortgages, or those above are part of the proble because they remain higher than the rates on conforming loans, or thosde beneath that threshold.
“Lenders are keepingv credit standards overly stringent for borrowers at the highee end of the market and are increasinglty reluctant to makejumbo loans,” NAR chief economisft Lawrence Yun said last month.