Charlotte October 2020 – Key Take Aways

• High unemployment rate but manufacturing and construction industries are having a challenging time filling jobs.
• Retail is projecting a good holiday season due to low expenditures throughout the pandemic on travel, normal retail expenses and dining out.
• The office market saw two trends accelerate with the pandemic:
  • Adoption of work from home – long term impact on amount of space needed, flexible schedules.
  • Employers looking to the suburbs (with no elevators, open plans).
• Charlotte’s office market is performing well overall relative to National statistics – 10.7% vacancy in Charlotte compared to 13.6% nationally.  In the suburbs, there are no substantive Landlord concessions being offered at this time.  Ten-X also reports there is an uptick in demand for suburban office opportunities.
• Industrial remains the darling, followed closely by Multi-family opportunities.
• While Retail has continued challenges.  NNN opportunities are hotter than ever, especially in the Dollar General/Dollar Store space, fast, casual and auto parts.
• Land deals are still happening – with an eye to Multi-Family or Industrial even if the play is to hold for now.
• Ten-X reports they will have the largest auction event in seven years in November with owners looking to get assets unloaded before year end.
• Bohler reports an interesting phenomenon of a fair amount of work in the ‘single family home for rent’ space.
• Distribution / ecommerce are hot as is cold storage.
• Consensus is that there is caution and a slowdown leading up to the election.
• First Citizens reports that refinancing for homes is up 62% YOY.   Appraisers are busier than they have ever been in the single family space, and the workload is causing delays.
• PPP loan forgiveness is starting with goodnews for those with loans of $50k or less requiring substantially less paperwork.
• On the insurance front, the market continues to tighten due to the impact of multiple natural disasters and higher jury verdicts.