I’ve been selling real estate in Charlotte for more than 20 years, which means I’ve had a front-row seat to some very different markets: the boom of the mid-2000s, the housing crash, the long recovery, the frenzy of 2020-2021, and today’s market.

Each month, I track the market stats for Mecklenburg County single family homes. One of the simplest is the number of single-family homes sold and September’s number caught my attention.

Looking back at the month of September 2004 when I first started tracking, 1,238 single-family homes sold in Mecklenburg County. This September, just 829 sold.

That’s interesting on its own. But consider what’s happened to Mecklenburg County over those 22 years. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the county’s population grew from 774,441 in 2004 to 1,233,383 in 2025, an increase of roughly 59%. [fred.stlouisfed.org]

So Mecklenburg County has nearly 60% more people, yet we just had 33% fewer September single-family home sales than we did in 2004.

So Where Did All the Sales Go?

The last four Septembers have been remarkably slow. There were 848 single-family sales in September 2023, 845 in 2024, 929 in 2025, and 829 this year.

What’s especially interesting to me is that the last time September single-family sales were consistently around these levels was during and immediately after the housing crash. But today’s market doesn’t feel anything like 2008.

Instead, we’re seeing something different. Would-be buyers are dealing with higher home prices and mortgage rates. At the same time, many current homeowners are sitting on mortgages with rates well below what they could get today.

They may want a larger house. They may want to downsize. They may just be ready for something different. But selling also means becoming a buyer, so for many people, staying put makes sense.

There may very well be pent-up demand in these numbers, but I think there’s also some pent-up supply. Many of the people who aren’t selling would also become buyers if they did.

And there’s something I’ve noticed firsthand after more than two decades in this business. Years ago, plenty of people moved simply because they wanted a different house. Today, that’s much less common. For most of the clients we’re working with, the reason for moving is bigger than the house itself: a growing family, a job change, kids leaving home, retirement or another life event. With today’s prices and mortgage rates, simply wanting something different often isn’t enough to justify the cost of moving.

Maybe that’s one of the stories these numbers are telling us. Mecklenburg County has a lot more people than it did 22 years ago, but we’re simply moving less often.

As always, here’s a summary of the stats for single family homes in Mecklenburg County in August compared to the previous month and again to the same month last year:

• Home sales are down 9% from last month and 11% from last year.
• Average sales price is up 2% from last month and 6% from last year.
• Median sales price is down 2% from last month and up 3% from last year.
• Average price per square foot is up 2% from last month and 7% from last year.
• Sale to list price ratio at 98% is even with last month but even with last year.
• Average time on market is up 16% from last month and up 11% from last year.
• Pending sales are down 10% from last month and 16% from last year.
• Supply is up 4% from last month and 23% from last year.
• Mortgage rates at 7.4% are up from 7% last month and from 6.3% last year.
• Average house payment is up 7% from last month and 18% from last year.

You can always find the detailed stats on our website here.

Population source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of the Population for Counties. Population figures are July 1 estimates; the current series is available through 2025. [fred.stlouisfed.org], [fred.stlouisfed.org]