The southeast region of the U.S. is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. Florida is home to three of the top 10 real estate markets. Head a little farther north, however, and you’ll find markets that are just as hot and heating up. Two of those are in North Carolina and two are in South Carolina.
Real Estate in South Carolina is Heating Up
Let’s start with South Carolina.
Overall, house prices in South Carolina are expected to rise in 2022. Like many other places around the country, there aren’t enough properties available for the buyers who want them. This low inventory coupled with high demand situation is creating a frenzy in the market as prices surge.
Greenville, South Carolina is one of the hottest real estate markets in the region. The pandemic has caused a boom in this town with a population of barely more than 75,000. The reason is that remote workers have migrated out of larger cities with more expensive housing into smaller towns like Greenville with more affordable real estate pricing. In the last decade, the city’s population has grown 21 percent.
What makes Greenville a desirable place to live for many people is its beautiful climate, great job situation, lower cost of living, and high quality of life.
In 2021, Greenville experienced one of the best sales years ever, according to local real estate agents. They expect 2022 to be even better. That’s why Realtor.com listed Greenville as the seventh-best real estate market in the country.
Another hot South Carolina market is Charleston. With housing inventory at its lowest in five years, people are moving to South Carolina in droves with Charleston being one of the top destinations. With median household incomes on the rise, real estate insiders expect 2022 to be one of the best years ever for sellers in Charleston.
Charleston is the most populous city in South Carolina, but its population is less than 150,000. That puts it out of the top 200 most populous cities in the country with plenty of room to grow. The real estate market is good for house flippers, rental property owners, and ground-up developers.
By contrast, Greenville is the sixth-largest city in South Carolina.
Other South Carolina cities with heating up real estate markets include Hilton Head, famous as a vacation resort; Myrtle Beach, another vacation hotspot; Bluffton; Columbia; North Charleston; and Hanahan.
North Carolina is Hotter Still
North Carolina is more populous than South Carolina, all around. The cities are larger and have more robust economies, but that doesn’t mean it’s a better place to live. Older people who are retiring may be more interested in the coastal areas, such as Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina or Nags Head and Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. Younger people may be more drawn to cultural centers like Charleston in South Carolina and Charlotte in North Carolina. Remote workers with families are likely to settle in rural areas and smaller towns.
Where South Carolina has no cities in the top 200 by population, North Carolina has seven of them:
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- Charlotte (Population 925,290)
- Raleigh (Population 488,334)
- Greensboro (Population 303,286)
- Durham (Population 292,301)
- Winston-Salem (Population 252,175)
- Fayetteville (Population 214,384)
- Cary (Population (Population 177,202)
All of these are hot real estate markets in 2022. For starters, there aren’t enough houses for the number of people looking to buy. Secondly, interest rates are still low enough to make real estate affordable. Due to people migrating south, particularly to the Carolinas, all these markets are booming. Ground-up development is stretching cities farther and wider while historic homes are being renovated and flipped, and as home prices go higher, some people are priced out of the market and forced to rent. That makes single-family rentals a good investment too.
While house prices are on the rise, so are rents. And foreclosures are up 85 percent year-over-year. That’s another opportunity for investors.
The hot spot in North Carolina is what they call the Research Triangle — Charlotte to Raleigh to Durham. This is North Carolina’s technology hub and home to some major corporations with a headquarters here or a satellite office. It’s also home to major universities, making it a rental property hotspot.
No matter where you live in North Carolina, the real estate market is red hot.
Georgia Real Estate Is Also Growing Hot
Investors in Georgia shouldn’t forget about the red-hot market in their state. Home prices are below the national average, taxes are low, and the cost of living is affordable. That makes it a desirable place to live for many would-be home buyers.
Georgia is also another destination state for movers. In 2020 and 2021, 114,000 new residents moved in.
According to Aceable, the fastest-growing markets in the state are some of the smaller towns in Georgia including Norcross, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Chamblee, and Braselton. Atlanta is also heating up. In fact, 50 percent of the households in Atlanta are renter-occupied. That makes this city a very hot market for rental properties.
Last year, home prices skyrocketed in Atlanta. Experts are expecting 2022 to be another year for rising home prices. As it stands, Atlanta is one of the top real estate markets in the country where home prices are expected to rise more than 13 percent this year.
In 2020, WalletHub listed Atlanta as one of the top five largest cities with the highest growth. In 2022, its population is just a little more than half a million. Atlanta has a diverse population including a large LGBT population and the second-largest majority black population among metro areas in the U.S. There is still enough land to build in Atlanta and plenty of opportunities for fix-and-flippers to find good deals.
Southeastern U.S. States Are Some of the Hottest Real Estate Markets in the U.S.
The southeast region of the U.S. is one of the hottest regions for real estate. Investors should have no problem finding deals. Whether you’re a fix-and-flip investor, rental property owner, or ground-up developer, get to know your market and specialize in a particular type of investment. Become well-known for putting together solid deals and you’ll have a lot of income for years to come.
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