Your inside source for real estate, development and construction information serving the counties of Mecklenburg, Union & Iredell VOLUME 106 NUMBER 20 ■ MECKTIMES.COM
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Construction industry adds 60,000 jobs in February as hourly wages post steepest rise since 1982 Page 2
ServisFirst Bank expands to Charlotte market Page 4
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NOVAK: How to handle a control freak Page 6
US stocks fall as inflation remains stubbornly high Page 6
Housing markets in opportunity zone redevelopment areas continue to keep up with national price increases ATTOM, has released its fourthquarter 2021 special report analyzing qualified low-income Opportunity Zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In this report, ATTOM looked at 5,180 zones nationwide with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the fourth quarter of 2021. The report found that median singlefamily home and condo prices rose from the third quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2021 in 56 percent of Opportunity Zones around the country and spiked by at least 20 percent annually in almost half. While the pace of increases slowed a bit in the fourth quarter, median values still went up in about half the zones by more than the 16.1 percent gain seen nationwide from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021.
Typical homes in Opportunity Zones did continue to cost just a fraction of those in most other neighborhoods around the nation in the fourth quarter of 2021. Median fourth-quarter prices sat below the national median of $315,648 in 76 percent of Opportunity Zones, about the same as in earlier periods last year. Typical values also remained under $200,000 in 51 percent of the zones during the fourth quarter of 2021. But that improved from 53 percent in the third quarter of 2021 and 61 percent a year earlier, as markets inside some of the nation’s poorest communities improved despite the ongoing threat from the Coronavirus pandemic that hit those areas hardest when it struck in 2020. In one sign of even stronger growth, price spikes of at least 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the same period in 2021 showed up in a larger portion of Opportunity Zones than in
other neighborhoods around the country. Opportunity Zones are defined in the Tax Act legislation as census tracts in or alongside low-income neighborhoods that meet various criteria for redevelopment in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. Census tracts, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, cover areas that have 1,200 to 8,000 residents, with an average of about 4,000 people. Prices inside Opportunity Zones kept growing during the fourth quarter of 2021 as a decade-long price boom in the United States continued to spread through every part of the country, including lowerincome communities. The trend persisted both because of and in spite of the pandemic as a surge of buyers continued chasing a tight supply of homes for sale. The buying glut has propelled the market amid a combination
PLEASE SEE HOUSING ON PAGE 7
“Rents grew more last year than any year on record, forcing many renters to look for a more affordable option. About 2 in 5 renters who moved in the past year said a rent hike influenced their decision to move.” Manny Garcia, Zillow
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