nccanes
06-18-2003, 08:00 AM
From Triangle Business Journal:
Living in style
Chapel Hill leads Triangle, Charlotte leads state in million-dollar homes
Kim Nilsen
CHAPEL HILL - The university town of Chapel Hill trumps other Triangle communities when measured by million-dollar homes, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
When asked by the Census Bureau to estimate how much money their homes and property would fetch if sold on April 1, 2000, 43 Chapel Hill home owners responded $1 million or more. That represented 0.65 percent of all owner-occupied homes in the town.
Raleigh and Greensboro reported 0.34 percent in the upper echelon, and Durham reported 0.19 percent.
The state's largest city, Charlotte, topped the list among North Carolina cities. Some 863 Charlotteans placed their homes in the seven-figure category, representing 0.77 percent of all owner-occupied homes in the Queen City.
Statewide, mansions were a meager 0.25 percent of the market.
"That segment of the market is very small," says Carl Van Horn, a residential analyst for Market Opportunity Research Enterprises. "People that are buying those kinds of houses are ... top executives."
While the Census Bureau depended on home owner evaluations to compile its data, local officials use a less subjective measure: the valuation of homes for tax purposes - a figure that's generally lower than the actual sale value.
Based on tax data, the number of million-dollar homes in Wake County alone swelled from fewer than 10 in 1992 to 278 today.
In 2000, when Wake County tax and revenue officials tallied high-price homes, they found 200 valued for tax purposes at more than $1 million. In 1992, the same query turned up between five and 10, says county Revenue Director Emmett Curl.
When Curl ran the numbers for Triangle Business Journal this month, the unedited list represented a total value for tax purposes of $386 million. Those properties pumped nearly $2.18 million into county coffers this year and funneled additional tax dollars to Cary, Raleigh and Wake Forest.
List reflects commerce
The list of million-dollar home owners in Wake County reflects many factors, including "old Raleigh" wealth, the growing influence of science and technology and the arrival of a major league sport.
It includes power brokers Jim Goodmon, Jim Goodnight, Bob Greczyn and Smedes York. Some just squeak over the mark. Others, such as Red Hat co-founder Bob Young's renovated $2.79 million Oberlin Road manse, are nestled comfortably in the tier.
Businessman and investor Dean Painter's north Raleigh home is listed at $4.45 million. BTI founder Pete Loftin's estate topped the list at $5.67 million, but Loftin has proposed selling off some of his acreage as home sites.
The group includes a number of former chief executives such as Young, Loftin, GoodMark Foods' Ron Doggett and Waste Industries founder Lonnie Poole Jr. New players also are present, such as Heinrich Gugger, who took the helm at Paradigm Genetics in July 2002.
Athletes have claimed some of the pricey turf. Wake County records show a $2.67 million home owned by Carolina Hurricanes' center Rod Brind'Amour and a $1.88 million home owned by former teammate Sandis Ozolinsh, who now plays for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
Curl says Hurricanes' Captain Ron Francis is building a home the county revenue department expects to value north of $1 million.
The influence of sports
Van Horn says the hefty payrolls of major league sports teams help explain why Charlotte has more million-dollar homes than any other North Carolina city. The arrival of an NBA franchise in 1988 gave that luxury housing market a lift nine years before the Hurricanes organization moved to Raleigh.
Nascar and the National Football League Carolina Panthers added to the demand in Charlotte. Van Horn says the Hornets' exit last year to New Orleans likely triggered a glut in the mansion market.
Charlotte's growth as a banking center also has helped push the Queen City into first place, says Tim Kent, executive vice president of the North Carolina Association of Realtors.
Also boosting wealth in both Charlotte and the Triangle has been the development of new health-care and technology companies, Kent says.
But much of the expansion in the million-dollar market, he posits, stems from old-fashioned appreciation rather than new wealth.
The Census Bureau data highlights wide disparities in housing prices. Charlotte's median home price is $134,300 - about $21,700 lower than the comparable price in Raleigh. Median home prices in the 2000 Census were highest in Chapel Hill, at $229,100.
But communities including Meadowmont and Lake Hogan Farms, as well as rising values, powered an upward march in just two years. The result: By 2002, the median value of a single-family detached home in Chapel Hill had risen to $322,000, according to Chapel Hill Data Book.
Reporter e-mail: knilsen@bizjournals.com
Living in style
Chapel Hill leads Triangle, Charlotte leads state in million-dollar homes
Kim Nilsen
CHAPEL HILL - The university town of Chapel Hill trumps other Triangle communities when measured by million-dollar homes, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
When asked by the Census Bureau to estimate how much money their homes and property would fetch if sold on April 1, 2000, 43 Chapel Hill home owners responded $1 million or more. That represented 0.65 percent of all owner-occupied homes in the town.
Raleigh and Greensboro reported 0.34 percent in the upper echelon, and Durham reported 0.19 percent.
The state's largest city, Charlotte, topped the list among North Carolina cities. Some 863 Charlotteans placed their homes in the seven-figure category, representing 0.77 percent of all owner-occupied homes in the Queen City.
Statewide, mansions were a meager 0.25 percent of the market.
"That segment of the market is very small," says Carl Van Horn, a residential analyst for Market Opportunity Research Enterprises. "People that are buying those kinds of houses are ... top executives."
While the Census Bureau depended on home owner evaluations to compile its data, local officials use a less subjective measure: the valuation of homes for tax purposes - a figure that's generally lower than the actual sale value.
Based on tax data, the number of million-dollar homes in Wake County alone swelled from fewer than 10 in 1992 to 278 today.
In 2000, when Wake County tax and revenue officials tallied high-price homes, they found 200 valued for tax purposes at more than $1 million. In 1992, the same query turned up between five and 10, says county Revenue Director Emmett Curl.
When Curl ran the numbers for Triangle Business Journal this month, the unedited list represented a total value for tax purposes of $386 million. Those properties pumped nearly $2.18 million into county coffers this year and funneled additional tax dollars to Cary, Raleigh and Wake Forest.
List reflects commerce
The list of million-dollar home owners in Wake County reflects many factors, including "old Raleigh" wealth, the growing influence of science and technology and the arrival of a major league sport.
It includes power brokers Jim Goodmon, Jim Goodnight, Bob Greczyn and Smedes York. Some just squeak over the mark. Others, such as Red Hat co-founder Bob Young's renovated $2.79 million Oberlin Road manse, are nestled comfortably in the tier.
Businessman and investor Dean Painter's north Raleigh home is listed at $4.45 million. BTI founder Pete Loftin's estate topped the list at $5.67 million, but Loftin has proposed selling off some of his acreage as home sites.
The group includes a number of former chief executives such as Young, Loftin, GoodMark Foods' Ron Doggett and Waste Industries founder Lonnie Poole Jr. New players also are present, such as Heinrich Gugger, who took the helm at Paradigm Genetics in July 2002.
Athletes have claimed some of the pricey turf. Wake County records show a $2.67 million home owned by Carolina Hurricanes' center Rod Brind'Amour and a $1.88 million home owned by former teammate Sandis Ozolinsh, who now plays for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
Curl says Hurricanes' Captain Ron Francis is building a home the county revenue department expects to value north of $1 million.
The influence of sports
Van Horn says the hefty payrolls of major league sports teams help explain why Charlotte has more million-dollar homes than any other North Carolina city. The arrival of an NBA franchise in 1988 gave that luxury housing market a lift nine years before the Hurricanes organization moved to Raleigh.
Nascar and the National Football League Carolina Panthers added to the demand in Charlotte. Van Horn says the Hornets' exit last year to New Orleans likely triggered a glut in the mansion market.
Charlotte's growth as a banking center also has helped push the Queen City into first place, says Tim Kent, executive vice president of the North Carolina Association of Realtors.
Also boosting wealth in both Charlotte and the Triangle has been the development of new health-care and technology companies, Kent says.
But much of the expansion in the million-dollar market, he posits, stems from old-fashioned appreciation rather than new wealth.
The Census Bureau data highlights wide disparities in housing prices. Charlotte's median home price is $134,300 - about $21,700 lower than the comparable price in Raleigh. Median home prices in the 2000 Census were highest in Chapel Hill, at $229,100.
But communities including Meadowmont and Lake Hogan Farms, as well as rising values, powered an upward march in just two years. The result: By 2002, the median value of a single-family detached home in Chapel Hill had risen to $322,000, according to Chapel Hill Data Book.
Reporter e-mail: knilsen@bizjournals.com