Jan. 19, 2023

Kim Walker, 704-940-3149

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At the end of 2022, existing-home sales across the 16-county Charlotte region declined 15.3 percent year-over-year, as 50,286 homes sold across the region last year. The region had approximately 9,300 more home sales in 2021 than in 2022, which included 12 consecutive months of year-over-year declines. 2022’s sales were on par with sales at the end of 2019, which was a healthier year of sales, due to the overall pace of the market and amount of inventory.

There were 3,065 closed sales during the month of December 2022 throughout the region, which is down 37.7 percent year-over-year. Sales included in this report, come from Canopy MLS and include single-family and condo-townhome data only, for the 16-county region.

Pending contracts, which signal buyer demand were down all year and totaled 47,477 homes under contract during the year, a decline of 20.5 percent when compared to 2021’s contract activity. Buyers pulled back from the market during 2022, largely due to the FED raising interest rates in response to inflationary pressure.  During the month of December, contract activity declined to its lowest point with 2,472 homes going under contract, a decline 32.4 percent year-over-year.  Contract activity is typically a forward-looking indicator and a good predictor of future sales.

Tiffany Johannes, 2023 president of Canopy Realtor® Association/Canopy MLS and Realtor®/Broker-In-Charge with RE/MAX Executive Ballantyne said, “Our region has had a tremendous amount of growth over the last year, even though year-over-year sales activity didn’t reach the level of activity we saw during the height of the pandemic. 2021 was an anomaly and not a healthy market, so what we saw over most of last year and will continue to see, is a return to a somewhat healthier time and pace of activity. If there’s a silver lining, its that this slower pace of sales should help inventory to build and perhaps give buyers more choices later on this spring.”

Yearend figures show new listing activity, which represents seller activity, was down 10 percent when compared to 2021, with 57,973 homes listed during the year. During the month of December sellers listed 2,418 homes for sale, a 31.3 percent year-over-year decline. As buyers pulled back last year, seller activity also declined.

At report time on January 5, 2023, there were 6,479 homes listed for sale in inventory, a 54 percent year-over-year increase compared to 4,206 homes for sale during the same period last year. Months of supply increased 100 percent to 1.6 months of supply, which means the region is still a tight, seller’s market and a long way from a balanced market (neither buyer’s nor seller’s market) at six months of supply.  Prices continued to rise year-over-year in December.  

At year end, the median sales price for all of 2022 was $379,890 a 16.7 percent year-over-year increase; while the average sales price for all of 2022 was $444,600, a 14.9 percent year-over-year increase.  This brought the original list price to sales price figure to 99.7 percent, which shows how strong the market was for sellers, as they still received nearly all of asking prices for their homes.  When looking at just the month of December both the median sales price ($373,625) and the average sales price ($436,920) increased 6.8 percent and 7.3 percent year-over-year respectively. The original list price to sales price figure in December continued to fall, slipping to 94.7 percent.

Johannes continued, “A number of economists are suggesting that we will experience a recession this year and a broad range of indicators like the housing market slowdown, are starting to show this. But buyers need to understand that a recession doesn’t necessarily equate to home prices falling. In fact, with inflation beginning to ease, rates are expected to fall a bit more in response, but the days of 3 percent rates are likely behind us. Our outlook at this point shows that any recession would be mild and housing would play a key role in an economic rebound.”

Time on market across the region showed homes sold quickly throughout 2022, leaving buyers little time for negotiation.  List to close averaged 77 days last year compared to 73 days in 2021; while days on market, the metric that accrues for “Active” and “Under-contract-show” statuses, showed homes averaged 22 days on market in 2022 compared to 19 days on market in 2021.  However, when looking at just the month of December, List to Close increased from 75 days in 2021 to 99 days in 2022, while days on market in December, increased from 20 days in 2021 to 41 days in 2022.

Canopy Realtor^® Association provides monthly reports on residential real estate market activity for the Charlotte region based on data from Canopy MLS. The Charlotte region, which this report is based on, includes 12 counties in North Carolina and four counties in South Carolina.

For more residential-housing market statistics, visit www.CarolinaHome.com and click on “Market Data.” For an interview with 2023 Association/Canopy MLS President Tiffany Johannes, Realtor®/Broker-in-charge with RE/MAX Executive Ballantyne, please contact Kim Walker.

Canopy Realtor® Association owns and operates Canopy MLS, the region’s primary source for accurate and timely property data in a multicounty service area including the Charlotte MSA, Asheville MSA and Catawba Valley region spanning across North Carolina and South Carolina to outside the Carolinas. Canopy MLS provides the latest technology, tools and analytics that Realtors® utilize to support consumers with their residential real estate transactions.   

Original Publish Date: 1/19/2023