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you have to live in the home for at least 2 of the last five years to avoid capital gains.
Technically the house has to have been your "primary residence" for at least 2 of the last 5 years. I worded my statement very carefully in order to avoid giving tax advice on a public board.
Hi,
I wanted to give you an update on our situation. We have an accepted offer on a home in the Belingrath subdivision; price was mid 600's. 4 bed 2.5 bath ~3600 sq foot all brick with a 3 car garage. If my job offer works out, I will have a 5 minute drive to work where my salary will be the same, cost-adjusted wise, as back home in LA. I work in the Information Technology sector.
A word of caution: Beware of homes built here in Charlotte from 1978 thru 1995. Most seem to have polybutylene (PB) plumbing pipe in them, and I feel that is a real problem. Take a look at the pbpipe.com website for the one billion dollar lawsuit settlement information regarding this plumbing nightmare. My advice is to stay away from any home with PB pipe in it. Take a peak at the plumbing underneath the house if you can, and have the inspector verify it too. Don't believe the seller's disclosure statement.
As for other neighborhoods, we liked them, but felt our best appreciation would come around the South Park area. We felt that the best malls, shopping stores, theatres, local entertainment, grocery stores and restaurants, YMCA,... were all within an easy single digit minutes commute of the neighborhood. Plus the employer was going to be a 5 minute drive, and the airport was only 15 minutes drive. We felt we were getting much more house, a newer nicer more open floorplan house for the money than we would have in MP, Eastover, Foxcroft,... Plus we get a garage too.
We really liked the close-in lake neighborhoods of Mt Island, Overlook, and Lake Wylie, but did not want the longer commute to where I would work and be most comfortable with the shops/restaraunts/... There just was not a lot of choices out in those other places yet, unless you can get by with the local Super Walmarts for most of your needs.
Normie summed it up right: Way too much traffic congestion and poor roads. Just like back home in Los Angeles. Traffic problems seemed to be 24x7 in these areas; whenever we visited (weekend, weekday midday, rush hour,...) traffic was backed up and waiting.
We looked at briefly Union county, Waxhaw, Concord, Rock Hill,... areas, but felt our best appreciation was likely to come in the South Park area. Good commute times at all hours to Uptown, good neighborhood amenities, newer more modern homes in our price range than MP/Eastover/...,
We felt (hope) that the home we are buying will likely go up in value due to all of the new construction going on in the areas like Matthews, Waxhaw,... and people will spend more money so they don't have to deal with the longer commutes to these farther out areas that will only grow even worse with time.
These are our thoughts and feelings that we developed from 6 trips to Charlotte in the last year. Yours will likely be different. Good luck, and enjoy the search.
One of my friends grew up in that neighborhood. A couple of Charlotte Hornets players were his next door neighbors. His father is a builder here in Charlotte and helped develop part of that area.
There are some very nice homes in there.
Good Choice.
About the plumbing, they no longer use it but most home inspectors will tell you it's not that big of an issue. From what I have learned the traps and connection from the wall to the sink are where the problems have or could occur.
The best appreciation will be in areas where supply is fixed. Specifically, if I were going to pick specific neighborhoods, I'd say Beverly Woods, Beverly Woods East, Mountainbrook, Governors Square, Barclay Downs. These are all relatively affordable SouthPark areas that you can bet will appreciate nicely as SouthPark becomes a retail mecca.
Lake Norman is my vote for appreciation. It's a good area to live with solid appreciation, even better if you can afford to actually live on the water. Just my understanding, I'm not a realtor or anything...
Hey, we moved from Pasadena, CA to NC 2 years ago. PM me for any questions.
We lived on Howard St. in NE Pasadena off of Lake Ave.
Dawn
Quote:
Originally Posted by NCBOUND123
Sport,
Your situation, as described, sounds similar to ours. We will be visiting this summer, from Pasadena, Ca, and are looking for homes in the same range, 300 to 800k, because we're not sure at this point how much we 'must' spend on a primary residence to avoid capital gains. I visit the Charlotte and Raleigh Durham real estate sites almost daily and I am astonished at the variety of homes in these ranges. So many photogenic properties. When in Charlotte, I'd like to visit the cities of Davidson, Moorseville, Charlotte, Waxhaw, Concord and so many others. I'm trying to find a really good area map so I can plan my trip (any suggestions would be appreciated). I figure I'll stay somewhere towards the middle of Charlotte and branch out from there each day.
What is wrong with giving tax advice on a public board if it is from the tax books?
dawn
Quote:
Originally Posted by sdheel
Technically the house has to have been your "primary residence" for at least 2 of the last 5 years. I worded my statement very carefully in order to avoid giving tax advice on a public board.
While I agree with you on some levels I will also point out that Charlotte is growing so rapidly that the Union County of today that seems really "far out there and long commuting" will be the close suburb tomorrow.
If you look at most major cities you will see that suburbs continue to spread out and get farther and farther away. 20 years ago anyone who lived south of the 51 HWY was considered "WAY" out there and out of Charlotte. Now if you say you live in Union County noone bats an eye.
So, I guess what I am trying to say is that places like north Union will continue to rise in value as the city grows. And if you have any amount of LAND in those areas I think it will increase even more.
We have lived here for 2 years. We moved from SoCal. In those 2 years our house property has gone up quite a bit. We have been shocked. Maybe not as rapidly as our Pasadena house from 2001-2005, but still......
Dawn
Quote:
Originally Posted by sport
Hi,
I wanted to give you an update on our situation. We have an accepted offer on a home in the Belingrath subdivision; price was mid 600's. 4 bed 2.5 bath ~3600 sq foot all brick with a 3 car garage. If my job offer works out, I will have a 5 minute drive to work where my salary will be the same, cost-adjusted wise, as back home in LA. I work in the Information Technology sector.
A word of caution: Beware of homes built here in Charlotte from 1978 thru 1995. Most seem to have polybutylene (PB) plumbing pipe in them, and I feel that is a real problem. Take a look at the pbpipe.com website for the one billion dollar lawsuit settlement information regarding this plumbing nightmare. My advice is to stay away from any home with PB pipe in it. Take a peak at the plumbing underneath the house if you can, and have the inspector verify it too. Don't believe the seller's disclosure statement.
As for other neighborhoods, we liked them, but felt our best appreciation would come around the South Park area. We felt that the best malls, shopping stores, theatres, local entertainment, grocery stores and restaurants, YMCA,... were all within an easy single digit minutes commute of the neighborhood. Plus the employer was going to be a 5 minute drive, and the airport was only 15 minutes drive. We felt we were getting much more house, a newer nicer more open floorplan house for the money than we would have in MP, Eastover, Foxcroft,... Plus we get a garage too.
We really liked the close-in lake neighborhoods of Mt Island, Overlook, and Lake Wylie, but did not want the longer commute to where I would work and be most comfortable with the shops/restaraunts/... There just was not a lot of choices out in those other places yet, unless you can get by with the local Super Walmarts for most of your needs.
Normie summed it up right: Way too much traffic congestion and poor roads. Just like back home in Los Angeles. Traffic problems seemed to be 24x7 in these areas; whenever we visited (weekend, weekday midday, rush hour,...) traffic was backed up and waiting.
We looked at briefly Union county, Waxhaw, Concord, Rock Hill,... areas, but felt our best appreciation was likely to come in the South Park area. Good commute times at all hours to Uptown, good neighborhood amenities, newer more modern homes in our price range than MP/Eastover/...,
We felt (hope) that the home we are buying will likely go up in value due to all of the new construction going on in the areas like Matthews, Waxhaw,... and people will spend more money so they don't have to deal with the longer commutes to these farther out areas that will only grow even worse with time.
These are our thoughts and feelings that we developed from 6 trips to Charlotte in the last year. Yours will likely be different. Good luck, and enjoy the search.
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Lake Norman
