Real Estate Broker Eric Andrews discusses selling a home with land in the Pittsboro area during 2020 and the Coronavirus epidemic. Houses in the $150,000 to $350,000 are actually in high demand, and Eric explains why that is—for now.
Right now, Eric says, everybody wants some land with a couple of acres. An acre is roughly a football field, and that’s some social distancing right there.
Smaller Yards no in Such High Demand
Smaller yard subdivisions like those in Briar Chapel have roughly a car length between the houses, and while these homes have their niche, people are looking for more room. If the same number can get them a house and 2 acres, people are choosing the larger space.
Working Backwards
To figure out what home and acreage is going to be in high demand, Eric says to look backward. If a home like that sells for $450,000, this means you have to have an income of $150,000 a year so support that mortgage. The average family income in Chatham County is $58,000, so that’s almost triple the average. So there’s not much of a market for homes priced at that range.
However, if you have something in the $175,000 to $200,000 range then you’re going to have an easier time selling. Eric gave an example. I recently had this tiny house, 1400 square-foot home, that went up for $225,000. We couldn’t show it for a while because of COVID-19, but once we were able, we sold it in a couple of days.
There wasn’t anything special about it except that it had that acerage and it was priced in the range that people could afford.
People Moving Here to Look for Houses with Land
We have people coming from the Northeast and the West Coast as well as Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary and Apex, and this is what they can do. If you want a home and two acres in Raleigh, it’ll cost you $1 million, but here you can get it for $200,000.