Golf community home in Fort Mill, SC, for $81 a square foot

    I wrote here the other day about a 3,900 square foot new home in a golf community near Charlotte, NC that was listed for less than $300,000.  That comes to well less than $100 per square foot.  In my travels, I just don't see quality homes much under $150 a square foot.  I promised to track down the story behind the price, and this morning I did.
    I spoke with Gary Nagle, an agent with Plasma Realty in Fort Mill, SC, a bedroom community of Charlotte just over the state line.  Gary told me that the home near Regent Park Golf Club that I had seen listed had been sold but the online listing had not been removed.  Oops.  Gary also told me he thought the photo of the home in the listing, sporting lots of brick, was probably only "representative" at that price, and that the siding of the finished house was more likely to be vinyl.  Double oops.
    He did steer me toward a listing for another home to be built by Ryan

Homes on the same cul-de-sac street, at roughly the same size (3,700 square feet) and for exactly the same price, $299,900.  However -- and isn't there always a "however" involved with a bargain? -- the home is being built on a zero lot line of less than ¼ acre.  That means the house's footprint will take up virtually the entire property, leaving a buffer of about 10 feet or so to the edge of the lot and the necessity for thick window curtains to avoid the prying eyes of neighbors a few yards away.  For those coming from an urban environment or Texas where communities are built in similar fashion, such neighborliness may not be an issue.  The more claustrophobic will have to balance proximity with the almost unheard of costs of just $81 a square foot, land included.
    Charlotte has a deserved reputation as a stable housing market, never rising too fast during the period of irrational exuberance nor falling as hard as other urban areas.  According to Gary, the housing markets in the Charlotte area and Fort Mill in particular have fared well over the last year, despite the banking debacle that deeply affected Bank of America and the now evaporated Wachovia Bank, both headquartered in the city.  Average home values had dropped to about $190,000, Gary said, mostly because builders were unloading their unsold inventory at discounts.  The average has now crept back up over $200,000.
    Besides the community surrounding the Regent Park Golf Club, other area communities offer a wide range of golfing and real estate options.  River Hills, in nearby Lake Wylie, is one of the few private courses in the area, featuring a Willard Byrd course built in 1969 and house prices from the $250s to over $1 million for a river view.  Other area communities of note South of Charlotte include Ballantyne, Springfield, Skybrook and Tega Cay, all with homes that begin around the mid $400s and range into seven-figure territory. North of the city, the golf communities along Lake Norman, including The Peninsula Club and The Pointe, are high quality and relatively high priced.

    Charlotte is a thriving southern city with all modern conveniences and services, including a large airport; you can also drive to Myrtle Beach, Charleston or Wilmington in a little over three hours.  If you would like more information about any of these communities, or want to check out the $81 per square foot home, let me know and I will put you in touch with Gary Nagle.