Lake Norman Real Estate and NC Homes for Sale

Two things prompted my to write this post about high-end real estate sales in Lake Norman:  A series of national articles about ˜affluent or ˜wealthy home buyers and several recent  Lake Norman sales of homes over $3 million.  Since there have been NO sales in the greater Lake Norman area of homes over $3 million since 5/14/07, the points in the three articles I read made some sense:

˜Wealthy Homeowners Take Advantage of Market  by Blanche Evans of Realty Times (4/17/08) is an analysis of ˜The Annual Survey Of Affluence and Wealth in America from American Express and the Harrison Group.  (Participants were divided into three groups: the upper-middle class $100,000 - $149,000; the affluent $150,000 - $249,000; and the supper affluent $250,000 +).  The bottom line of this report?  40% of the nations wealthy plan to buy real estate in 2008.  ˜The wealthy view real estate as diversification and % believe real estate values will rebound. 

˜Wealthy see buying opportunites in sluggish real-estate  by Amy Hoak of MarketWatch also uses the American Express/Harrison Group survey as the foundation of her article.  Of the highest income earners, she writes that ˜40% said they are in the market to acquire real estate this year.  However this figure drops to 17% of their upper-middle class participants.

˜If Trump and Buffett can do it, so can you by Bernice Ross is the second of a two-part series she wrote about ˜reluctant buyers which was published by Inman News.  ˜Its no secret that people like Warren Buffett and Donald Trump are actively involved in purchasing as much real estate as possible¦The smartest people in the real estate business are contrarians.  They sell when prices increase and buy when prices are going down.

Here in our Lake Norman Area, $2,000,000 is probably where our true luxury home market begins.  However, I found it very interesting that there had been no sales over $2,950,000 since May of 2007¦until this month.  Showings of the highest priced homes have picked up and two Lake Norman estates recently went ‘under contract’: 20940 Bethelwood Lane (list price is $5,750,000) and 17216 Connor Quay Ct. (Listing price is $3,830,000).

It is hard to know if this is a true sign that luxury home buyers are returning to Lake Norman but it certainly indicates that there are some positive moves in that direction. 

*Thank you to Chris Lowery of www.Open2View.com for the photograph!

**Update 9/14/08:  The property on Bethalwood Lane closed at $4,900,000.

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