State of Housing 2022 Summit 
Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at 2:00 pm

In-person at The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City or via Zoom

The summit, in its fourth year, brings developers, government officials, and community stakeholders together for an exclusive first look at the "2022 State of Housing in Charlotte Report," which details:

• A comprehensive inventory of the current housing stock
• An analysis of housing affordability across all income levels
• A high-level comparison of the Charlotte regional housing market
• A comprehensive look at owner-occupied, rental, and subsidized housing in the eight-county Charlotte region
• How the market has changed since the first State of Housing Report in 2019
• How house price growth rates have fared during and after the COVID-19 pandemic
• A long-term view of the dynamics of the housing market over the last two decades

Event Schedule

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Originally published on September 3, 2022 by Rebecca Picciotto for the Wall Street Journal.

Affordable-housing developers nationwide are stalling work on new projects, delaying thousands of units from coming to market when the U.S. already has a broad deficit of low-income housing.

Rising interest rates and inflation have made financing for affordable housing more difficult and costly. Supply-chain issues for materials like lumber and appliances have eased a bit recently but haven’t gone away.

TOP FIVE US METROS FOR LIFE SCIENCES IN 2022

By Ioana Ginsac

Growth in the life sciences sector has driven demand in recent years for both commercial real estate space and labor to accommodate this specialized sector. A new study by commercial real estate platform CommercialCafe set out to identify the best metros for life science companies in 2022 and assessed more than 40 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in terms of regional talent pool and workforce; accessibility of local office markets; the degree of availability of existing dedicated property; as well as the state of the local pipeline aiming to expand local life sciences capacity.

Boston took the number one spot on the list, with San Francisco in second place, then San Diego third, New York fourth, and Washington, D.C., rounding out the top five.

A longtime “flagship market” for life sciences, the Boston metropolitan area remains a leader in the sector. The MSA stood out for several key indices scored in the ranking: Boston boasts the largest labor pool among the metros analyzed, as well as the largest life sciences real estate market — nearly 25 million square feet of existing dedicated property, of which just under 14 million square feet was LEED-certified space. What’s more, with an additional 23.8 million square feet of new life sciences developments in the pipeline — under construction, as well as in the planned and prospective stages — Boston seems firmly placed at number one for the foreseeable future.

Last week, NAIOP members met with City Council Candidates Dimple Ajmera and Marjorie Molina to discuss important issues impacting Charlotte’s CRE industry.

The Lunch with a Leader series provides NAIOP Charlotte members an exclusive opportunity to meet and interact with key leaders in our community. Look for upcoming NAIOP Charlotte fall events here.

Compiled from REBIC, staff reports

REBIC’s Rob Nanfelt reported Tuesday that the City’s Planning Committee is taking up the matter of the proposed Unified Development Ordinance. Next month, committee members will take any additional recommendations before the third/final draft.

Last week, the Charlotte City Council received comments from the community during a public hearing on the proposed UDO. Click here to view the resolution. The entire hearing is available to view here – beginning approximately at the 2:51:30 mark.   

Next is a review and recommendation from the City’s Planning Committee scheduled to begin Tuesday, July 19, at 5 p.m. Those interested can view it on the City’s Planning Department YouTube Channel. The complete agenda and meeting packet is available here.

2040 Planning Academy Starting Tuesday, June 21

Do you have questions about all the development you see in CLT? Do you want to know more about how CLT plans for its future? Are you interested in influencing the future of your neighborhood?

The 2040 Planning Academy, formerly the Community Planning Academy, is a free 5-class program aimed at helping residents better understand the role planning plays in building communities. Through group discussions, presentations, and interactive activities, participants will learn when and how they can be involved in planning processes and help influence the future of their community.

The application window is open starting today, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, and will close on Sunday, July 17, 2022, at midnight.

Originally published on June 29, 2021, by Zach Bowyer, Brian Chandler and Bryan Lockard for NAIOP E-Newsletter.

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted a nearly 12-year growth cycle for the senior housing market, causing a drop in valuations to an eight-year low. Stabilized occupancy rates also fell to record lows due to infections, mandated holds on new resident admissions, safety concerns, and isolation fears. Rents, however, continued to rise, despite significant occupancy losses.

In addition, following four consecutive years of year-over-year decline, total price per bed for nursing homes increased by nearly 22 percent in the first quarter of 2021, marking the second-highest price point for nursing homes ever recorded, according to JLL Valuation Advisory’s recently released Seniors Housing & Care – Investor Survey and Trends Outlook. 

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Originally published on May 7, 2021, for the Building  Design and Construction Network.

Construction employment was unchanged from March to April as nonresidential contractors and home builders alike struggled to obtain materials and find enough workers, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. Association officials said the industry’s recovery was being hampered by problems getting stable prices and reliable deliveries of key materials, while the pandemic and federal policies were making it harder for firms to find workers to hire.

“Contractors are experiencing unprecedented intensity and range of cost increases, supply-chain disruptions, and worker shortages that have kept firms from increasing their workforces,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “These challenges will make it difficult for contractors to rebound as the pandemic appears to wane.”

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Originally published by Marta Soncodi for NAIOP's Spring 2021 Issue.

A new ratings system quantifies how effective they are across several important criteria. 

Investing in smart building technology may not be seen as a priority after commercial real estate investments were hit especially hard in 2020. However, if improving tenant experience was being considered before the pandemic, it’s now an imperative.

Why should commercial real estate owners consider investing in smart building technology upgrades? Based on research and industry analysis, fully integrated smart systems can increase building efficiency, optimize facility operations, improve occupant safety, security and wellbeing, and enhance end-user preferences. And, in light of the pandemic, stakeholders — commercial real estate companies, building owners, managers, and tenants — should examine the competitive advantages of smart building technology. 

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Originally published in NAIOP's Summer 2020 Issue By Michael Stewart

Many tenants need rent relief, but what are the best ways to go about providing it?

As state and local governments rolled out measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in March, commercial landlords began getting calls for help from tenants. In an environment where social distancing has taken hold and more customers are staying home, retailers and other consumer-facing businesses are feeling the impact of decreased demand, supply-chain interruptions, and in some cases, mandatory closures.

In light of this rapidly evolving situation, here are five issues landlords should consider before negotiating concessions with commercial tenants.

Loan documents could limit tenant relief. Before agreeing to any reduction in rent or other modifications to a lease, owners should carefully review their project’s loan documents. Many documents include financial covenants that must be maintained during the term of the loan. Owners should ensure that aggregate rent reductions will not reduce net operating income to a point where financial covenant tests are tripped, triggering a default or other lender protections (such as cash management) under the loan documents. Additionally, owners need to confirm whether their loan documents permit the modification or termination of a lease, or acceptance of less rent than stipulated.

Click Here to Read More

Posted June 28, 2019

The City of Charlotte is considering revisions to its Minimum Housing Code Ordinance, with changes that could impact housing affordability by raising the cost of property management and code compliance for landlords.

A full list of the proposed changes is available here, along with the presentation made last week to City Council’s Neighborhood Development Committee. They include:

• Requiring roof drains, gutters and downspouts be maintained in good repair and free from obstructions and designed to discharge rainwater away from
  the structure.
• Requiring any existing air conditioning systems to be ‘in good working condition.’
• Requiring that cabinet doors and drawers be ‘operating as intended and have functional hardware.’
• Requiring that exhaust ducts for clothes dryers be equipped with a back-draft
  damper.
• New fines of $500 per day for failure to correct any dangerous violations within 48 hours.
• Enhanced penalties for Environmental Court convictions that include probation or up to 30 days in jail.

Click here to read more.

Posted on April 11, 2019

Join UNC Charlotte Childress Klein Center for Real Estate for the Charlotte Housing Policy Summit on Wednesday, April 24 at UNC Charlotte’s Center City Campus. This event will address Charlotte's housing policy implications based on the analysis discussed in the “State of Housing in Charlotte” report and summit.

Posted June 18, 2018

Millennials are not the only demographic influencing the housing market; demographers estimate that the age 65-and-over population in the U.S. will double between 2010 and 2060, and this shift will most certainly impact real estate. According to the Curbed article, “The Changing Face of Retirement: Apartment Living, Active Lifestyles and Rural Homes,” retirees want different retirement amenities than previous generations. Traditional retirement communities that are isolated and offer not much more than golf are losing favor to urbanized independent living communities that have “clubhouses, fitness centers, lap pools, and walking trails.” Older adults do not want to be placed on “islands of old age,” the article states, and prefer age integration over segregation in their activities.

Posted on November 30, 2017

A recent article in Bloomberg Technology, What Life is Like Inside WeWork’s Communal Housing Project, profiled WeLive apartment living to see if the shared common space apartments could reinvent rental housing the same way WeWork has changed office space. WeLive provides fully furnished apartments in the same building as WeWork’s shared office spaces. In the common areas, residents can “cook dinner in an expansive kitchen, shoot pool in the laundry room or get neighborly over free WeWork-provided cocktails on the seventh-floor roof terrace.”

WeLive debuted last year in Washington, D.C., and New York and was expected to have almost three dozen WeLive locations by the end of 2017, but still has only the two original locations. Tenants have been slow to lease, according to the article, because the apartments are as expensive as similar studio units on the market and the communal “dorm for adults” aspect is not appealing to everyone. Those interviewed for the story appreciated the networking and instant social life WeLive provides but several conceded that their units were temporary places to call home until they found something that felt more permanent.