Does anyone feel that by the time..... (Charlotte, Asheville: apartment complexes, lofts)

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

What I want is COOLER air, the beautiful mountains, and a Krispy Cream Donut!

[headed4nc]

Originally Posted by I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA

What I want is COOLER air, the beautiful mountains, and a Krispy Cream Donut!

No, dunkin donuts better

[nctarheel]

To those posting that natives dont mind all the newcomers, its not entirely correct.

I do not blame people for having to move other places because they are priced out or dont want to raise families in areas with poor schools or have high rates of crime. I understand how you feel.

With that said, the population has not just increased gradually over time, it has exploded. Im not talking about Charlotte as much as Im talking about its outlying areas, like Lake Norman. Seemingly quiet towns turned overnight into sprawl. A queit farming community that I grew up in is now replaced with Walmart and Harris Teeter ever few miles, insane traffic, taxes, overcrowded schools and a crowded lake.

So you can imagine many are disillusioned with all this growth. Even many newcomers who have been here for a few years are showing up at council meetings to hope restrict some of the growth. This area is being stripped of everything and paved over with the cement of "progress".

[headed4nc]

Originally Posted by nctarheel

To those posting that natives dont mind all the newcomers, its not entirely correct.

I do not blame people for having to move other places because they are priced out or dont want to raise families in areas with poor schools or have high rates of crime. I understand how you feel.

With that said, the population has not just increased gradually over time, it has exploded. Im not talking about Charlotte as much as Im talking about its outlying areas, like Lake Norman. Seemingly quiet towns turned overnight into sprawl. A queit farming community that I grew up in is now replaced with Walmart and Harris Teeter ever few miles, insane traffic, taxes, overcrowded schools and a crowded lake.

So you can imagine many are disillusioned with all this growth. Even many newcomers who have been here for a few years are showing up at council meetings to hope restrict some of the growth. This area is being stripped of everything and paved over with the cement of "progress".

It seems years ago everyone was leaving the little towns to go either east or west to the big cities, it was vougue to live in the big city. I think now that the baby boomers are getting older the new trend is to go to their roots and find a little peaceful town and live the rest of their lives there. For others who don't have roots in a small town it's trendy now to find a small town and set up roots. My have things changed in 25 years. Who would have thought the trend thing was to move to a small town especially in NC.

[southernnative]

I agree with nctarheel that a lot of the residents DO resent the rapid growth. While the natives are generally (though not always) accepting of each individual newcomer, the newcomers as a group are frequently not welcomed with open arms. Many Carolinians, especially in the rural areas, do not like the changes that the masses of people moving in are causing.

[TBLTZ]

Originally Posted by thisguy

If you moving from the Hamptons I think you should be able to afford NC?? Isn't Hamptons where P Diddy and the ultra rich vacation? if you can afford that than NC should be in your range any part of it

On a serious note - I wouldn't worry about being priced out in a year or two. There is a lot of supply coming online at least around the major 2 cities (Charlote/Raleigh) new homes being built everywhere - it is not like areas like northern VA, NYC, San Diego etc where there is essentially nowhere left to build and hence no more supply of housing. Also with interest rates going up and housing market slowing in most areas of the country, and especially in areas where people from out of state are fleeing from to come to NC its going to take longer for people to sell homes so it will slow down the influx

Even if you disagree with the above comments, houses won't dissapear - maybe you will need to buy a 10% smaller house if you come in 2 years but is that pricing you out of the market. Nah. NC is in general very affordable for many people (relatively speaking), especially for those bringing equity from homes they sell in other parts of the country. If you are insistent on buying a $400K home than maybe you'd have to pay $450K down the road if you wait, but for the average person who is looking for $150-$200-$250K homes they are there, you might need to live 2-3 miles farther out or have a 5% smaller home in a few years but its not like you won't find good homes available. Also there is NO guarantee that the economy won't slow down in the next few years, knocking prices down or slowing their ascent etc - there are many variables, but my best guess is some continued appreciation in the area but probably in the 5-7% range per year over next 2 years or so - before I went down there and saw all the supply of homes coming online that will be ready in next 6-18 months I would of thought it would be higher, but already we are hearing reports of new home builders offering incentives in the past month to start pushing their inventory, and that trickles down to older home sales over time.

40% of homes bought in the past 4-5 years have been speculators and people buying 2nd homes - so as the "easy money" is no longer there the speculators are exiting the market and nationally we should go to a more normal housing market...

Yes the Hamptons are expensive. The average medium price for a home is 900k. That is how bad it is here. You have to make 250K a year to buy a house its crazy. I should be buying in 6 months to a year so I just wanted to know. I know that NC prices have been increasing only by 1 or 2%. But I worry about the 20-30% increases. I guess in just use to NY real estate. Thanks for making me feel better. I guess I just don't want to miss out on a chance to own a house.

[Michelle71]

I am also one that greatly resents all of this growth. My family has lived in Wake Co for several generations, over 200 years and I despise what is happening to this area. This place no longer feels like the south. It is far easier to find NY style food than southern. My mother’s garden was eaten up this summer by deer because developers have taken their habitat and the poor things were starving. I do not take it out on individual people but yes I am angry. I find the disadvantages to this explosive growth far outweigh any positives. Can you imagine being from and living in the south but are picked on for having a southern accent? I have heard several people complain about it. That’s how bad it has gotten. Natives are in the minority.

[thisguy]

Originally Posted by TBLTZ

Yes the Hamptons are expensive. The average medium price for a home is 900k. That is how bad it is here. You have to make 250K a year to buy a house its crazy. I should be buying in 6 months to a year so I just wanted to know. I know that NC prices have been increasing only by 1 or 2%. But I worry about the 20-30% increases. I guess in just use to NY real estate. Thanks for making me feel better. I guess I just don't want to miss out on a chance to own a house.

You are extrapolating your experience in Hamptons or parts of New England to the rest of the country. With the exception of "big popular cities" especially those on the coasts, and "hot" areas like Phoenix, parts of Florida, Las Vegas, etc - much of the country never experienced this 'level' of boom. Real estate is a lot more local - so these national studies don't mean much. Its been on both coasts especially and then in selected hot spots where speculators ran in with no intention of living in homes but flipping them - this was helped by all time lows in interest rates and exotic mortgages (i.e. interest only). Many flipped even between the prebuild and build process, that is how out of hand it was getting. Eventually a correlation between incomes and home prices must happen (to some degree) because eventually you will freeze out all but the ultra wealthy from buying a home.

Unlike many parts of NY which you are used to there is not limited supply of land in NC... they are still building out and smaller towns are now becoming mid sized towns, and mid sized towns are becoming larger towns (speaking of areas such as surroundings of Charlotte and Raleigh) As you know, there is not an inch left of coast line in NY left to develop nor anything "new" in the burroughs - all they can do is convert crappy apartments into "condos". So in those areas that have been developed ad nauseum for decades, the supply of new housing is basically exhausted so in simple economics, supply of housing is fixed, demand increases, prices shoot up. In other areas of the country (i.e. NC for one) demand is going higher but supply is also increasing which mitigates the price increases to some degree. Texas is the same way 0- lots of people moving there but there is so much land you still get lots of hosue for the money. Same with Atlanta (for now) although all that growth has created huge sprawl in this specific example. Now when the point comes where traffic is a nightmare around the major NC cities, than those nice homes and neighborhoods closer to the jobs (as people don't want that hour commute) will start seeing some of that appreciation you are talking about but probably this is quite a far ways away....

With that said, the jobs need to be there to continue to support that growth - right now at least in Raleigh area they seem to generally be coming - Charlotte I don't follow as closely but if the job spigot shuts off it will be a moot point - you can come and want to live in an area all you want to escape but if there is not a work to support oneself it won't matter too much.

[thisguy]

Originally Posted by southernnative

I agree with nctarheel that a lot of the residents DO resent the rapid growth. While the natives are generally (though not always) accepting of each individual newcomer, the newcomers as a group are frequently not welcomed with open arms. Many Carolinians, especially in the rural areas, do not like the changes that the masses of people moving in are causing.

I don't blame you guys one bit. If you live one way for a long time and then in a period of a decade the whole complexion of an area changes to something that you don't like - that sucks. I was remarking to the realtor in the car that entire developments (mile after mile) were listed with homes built in 1999-2004, so I mentioned to her "none of this was even here as recently as 8 year ago. Literally the whole complexion of the area must of changed.

Hence the irony of people moving down for southern charm (among other things) only to locate themselves in $350-$500K home communities full of people from the same place they came from. Classic!!

I will do my part if/when I move - I plan to bad mouth NC to everyone I know

Humans - we are like locusts - we descend into nice areas and chew them up and spit it out - then we move on to the next area... basically this is what is happening - the complaints I read today about northern VA, and LA, San Diego, and NYC, and NJ, FL, are what i expect to be reading in about 15 years in Colorado North Carolina, Arizona, etc.

[saralee]

OK, so I guess the general sentiment is locals ARE resentful. What a disappointment. Fortunately, we didn't encounter anyone who made us feel uncomfortable about wishing to relocate, then buying a home. If we had, we surely would have had second thoughts. The last thing we want is to be outcasts in our new community, and we surely don't want our 8 and 12-year-old to pay for our decision to move.

Is growth really that bad? Are there no plusses?

Would it be better if folks purcahsed existing homes instead of building new?

Are there any political successes combating the explosion of growth?

I'm not looking for anything but genuine responses, I truly don't have the answers.

SL