The Charlotte area the lone city with home price appreciation for the month of January according to the S&P / Case-Shiller Price index.  Charlotte saw a modest 1.8% increase in home values while prices Nationally fell 11.4% during January.  This was a the steepest decline since the price index began in 1987.  This continues a 19 month trend of home prices growing slowly or in decline.  Las Vegas and Miami reported the lowest decline: 19.3%. 

While this is newsworthy, its no suprise.  The study covers only 20 cities so while it is comprehensive, it doesn't mean that prices everywhere are in the tubes.  Cities like Las Vegas and Miami saw a huge run up value and explosive growth fueled by cheap money and easy loans.  Charlotte's growth has been fairly conservative in that there were a lot of infrastructure issues that prevented explosive growth.  The other positive is that Charlotte had not been on a lot investment radars so as a result, we're not having this bloodletting of foreclosures that is seen in many cities around the country. 

Conservatively speaking, our day is coming and it will probably be when they examine February (only because Feb is one of the slowest months historically) however in March, we should once again see Charlotte back on the upswing of things.   

Jonathan Osman
Charlotte NC Homes, Charlotte Real Estate