A Buyer's Market 

Anna Lefoy, 28, thought it would be easy.

She would just call up a real estate agent, and after a couple months of looking, she'd buy a house near downtown. Not a 600-square-foot condo like all her friends were buying, but a real house with a yard, shiny hardwoods and those big, chunky baseboards they just don't make anymore. The realtors showed her the "bargains" in the Arts District, Plaza Midwood and Commonwealth.

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• Tara Servatius
• A house in the Oakhurst neighborhood bound by Commonwealth Avenue and Richland Drive to the north and Independence Boulevard to the east

"They were all $175,000 and needed $50,000 worth of work and were on a postage stamp of land," Lefoy says.

Lefoy wasn't looking for the Taj Mahal or anything. She was willing to overlook some imperfections, but she didn't want to live next door to a crack house, either. Eventually, reality dawned on her. On the salary she made as an event planner, she couldn't afford to buy a house in a downtown neighborhood. "I was in tears," she said.

A year or two ago, you could still buy a house in decent condition in Sedgefield, Chantilly and even some of the better parts of Plaza Midwood for $260,000. But prices for your typical 1,250-square-foot, two to three bedroom, one to two bath home in those neighborhoods broke the $300,000 barrier this year and continue to shoot through the stratosphere. Four years ago, you could still buy the same type of house in parts of Elizabeth and Dilworth for about $250,000. Today, you're looking at a minimum of $350,000 for something in decent shape in those neighborhoods.

So what's left for those who don't want to do the urban pioneer thing and spend the next five years living next to a boarded up house, waiting patiently while the neighborhood appreciates? That's what Lefoy and others like her who want to move a short drive away from downtown wanted to know.

The first half-dozen realtors Creative Loafing called out of the phone book all gave us the same answer to that question. If you couldn't afford a house in Dilworth, Plaza Midwood, Chantilly, Elizabeth or NoDa, and you weren't prepared to do the urban pioneer thing in tough but appreciating neighborhoods like Belmont and Villa Heights in order to own a house with a yard, then you were pretty much out of luck. But CL wasn't willing to accept no for an answer. There had to be thousands of young professionals out there just like Lefoy, and they had to be moving somewhere.

As it turned out, CL was asking the right questions, just to the wrong people. An antiquated neighborhood coding system still used by most Charlotte realtors has been holding over a dozen cool in-town neighborhoods with affordable housing back because many of them don't show up in standard area searches even though they may be right next to one of the city's hottest neighborhoods. Many realtors also have certain stigmas about going beyond certain area boundaries to see if anything has changed from five years ago. So when realtors who don't live and breathe downtown's neighborhoods and drive its streets daily type in the old codes, nothing comes up but the same old overpriced houses. Meanwhile, other downtown realtors are finding new hot neighborhoods and personally colonizing them with those who crave the urban lifestyle, all under the radar.

The whole thing drives Dwellings Realty's Elizabeth Grillo nuts.

"We tell other realtors all the time, drive around," said Grillo. "A lot of realtors won't cross over Eastway Drive. We'll ask, 'Well, have you ever gone?' And they'll say they've never been there and I'll say, 'Just drive over there and then pull up what has sold.' Then they go, 'Oh wow, I never even knew this was over here.'"

If you want to live in a nice neighborhood near downtown but don't have $300,000 or even $200,000 to plunk down on the table, you've got to set aside your expectations and your preconceptions and be willing to take a look at neighborhoods you haven't heard of.

"People need to find a realtor that they like to work with and trust who will show them a few things out of the box," said Grillo. "People say to me all the time 'Thank you for showing me that. I never would have looked in that neighborhood and I never would have looked at that house.'"

Dwellings' Lexie Longstreet is a longtime downtown realtor who lived in Plaza Midwood when Midwood wasn't cool. She did the urban pioneer thing for years, heard the gunshots and had her things stolen. She says she understands that many of her clients just aren't willing to go in for that kind of rough living to be five minutes from downtown, and she says that they don't have to.

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• Tara Servatius
• Anna Lefoy in her newly renovated home in Merry Oaks

But they do have to be a little flexible and realize that the adorable $150,000 house they are looking for may be right in front of them if they're willing to rip up a few old carpets, refinish a few hardwood floors and apply a fresh coat of paint, all things that should run you less than $6,000 total on your typical 1,200-square-foot bungalow.

"People don't want to do anything to a house," said Longstreet. "They don't want to change a light bulb. That's too much work. They think that a fixer-upper means they'll paint the bathroom. I think that's a huge problem in trying to get a value. You need to at least expect that an old person's house will have ugly wallpaper and ugly counter tops and an ugly kitchen floor, because if you want to buy it fixed up, then you are paying the price for somebody else having done that work."

None of which means you have to lift a finger, of course. Most of what Longstreet is talking about can be tackled by contractors over a weekend.

"People are more willing to pay $179,000 for something that is all redone than to pay $140,000 for something that just needs to be painted," stated Longstreet. "I think that is the hardest thing they have to overcome is not necessarily finding the houses but doing the work, making that adjustment mentally that they are going to have to paint and pull up rugs."

And it's also important to do your research, says Dan De La Portilla, a realtor and urban pioneer who was one of the first to move into Wesley Heights off West Trade Street, a neighborhood with home values that have tripled in less than a decade. Just because a neighborhood close to downtown is a little gritty around the edges doesn't mean it has a crime problem. Home values in an up-and-coming neighborhood that's affordable often begin to quietly creep up before all the yards start looking nice, but you can't tell what's going on without finding out what houses were selling for two years ago, who lives there and what's changing.

In the end, Lefoy was one of the fortunate ones. Her landlord happened to be renovating a house in Merry Oaks, a cute but far less expensive neighborhood right next to Plaza Midwood on Central Avenue. Lefoy had never heard of Merry Oaks, but as soon as she saw the beautifully renovated house, she knew she was home. At $131,000, less than half of what she would have paid in Midwood, her payments aren't cramping her style, either.

"I'd never heard of Merry Oaks before," said Lefoy. "Nobody had. It's kind of like a hidden jewel."

EAST OF DOWNTOWN/PLAZA MIDWOOD AREA

Merry Oaks

It's one of the downtown area's least expensive and most centrally located neighborhoods, which makes it one of the best bargains on this list. Located next to pricey Plaza Midwood off of Central Avenue, it's a five-to-seven-minute drive to downtown and less than two miles from the hip "Plaza Central" retail district.

Home prices run about $100 less per square foot than in Plaza Midwood -- in the low $100,000s for fixer-uppers up to $190,000 for renovated houses.

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• Tara Servatius
• A home in Colonial Village, bound by Park and Scaleybark roads, Hartford Avenue and South Boulevard

It's an ideal place to buy and hold for a few years because it is quietly seeing significant appreciation as renters are replaced with homeowners interested in the urban lifestyle. Merry Oaks has large lots, big shade trees and homes built in the 1940s through the 1960s. A new paved greenway path connects Merry Oaks and Plaza Midwood, making the neighborhood ideal for runners and bikers. The neighborhood is a mix of older home owners, 40-somethings who discovered it when it was still rough a decade ago and stayed because they love it, young professionals, and renters. No particular group dominates, which adds that quirky flavor unique to urban neighborhoods.

Country Club

"It's a lovely secret," says resident Liz Boarman, 42, who paid $206,000 for her house last year. "It's progressive and people-friendly. I love that it has mature trees. It's beautiful and it's quiet."

Like Merry Oaks, Country Club bumps up against Plaza Midwood, where you'll pay twice as much for a house the same size and a lot that's likely to be smaller. The neighborhood is sandwiched between Midwood, Central Avenue, and Eastway and Hilliard drives and is a seven-to-10-minute drive to downtown. Homes have seen a large jump in value in the last few years, as young professionals have discovered them and bought them from older homeowners who still dominate the neighborhood. Properties sell for $100,000 to $215,000, depending on their state of renovation.

Sheffield Park/Eastway Park

Realtor Lexie Longstreet calls this neighborhood "one of the best values" in the Plaza Midwood area right now. The neighborhood, which is bounded by Eastway Drive, Central Avenue and Independence Boulevard, is loaded with different styles of homes built in the 1950s through the 1970s.

"That's a great area," declares Longstreet. "You can get a house for $99,000 to $130,000. A lot of single women and a lot of single people are moving in there. That's a safe neighborhood where you can walk your dog at 11 at night."

About a half mile down Central from Plaza Midwood, the neighborhood is seeing a resurgence of renovation by those who want an updated home but can only afford to pay a third to 40 percent of what it costs to live in Plaza Midwood.

Oakhurst

One of the few affordable neighborhoods near downtown that's loaded with cute bungalow-style homes built in the 1930s and 1940s, this is a still largely undiscovered bargain. It backs up to the popular Cotswold area on one side, where home prices are growing significantly. Oakhurst stretches across both sides of Monroe Road and is bound by Commonwealth Avenue and Richland Drive to the north and Independence Boulevard to the east.

"This is a bargain to me at any price if you want a bungalow," says Longstreet. "The houses are small but very cute. It's very safe."

The homes range in price from $90,000 to $160,000 and average about 800 to 1,200 square feet, with lots large enough to expand on. Developers are also building new homes for $300,000-plus on the edge of the neighborhood. Most people who currently live there are long-time residents, though young families with kids seem to be cropping up here and there.

SOUTH OF DOWNTOWN

Colonial Village

After home prices in Dilworth shot through the stratosphere, the Sedgefield neighborhood along Park Road, which backs up to Dilworth, became Dilworth's affordable alternative. Now that a match-box-sized home on a postage-stamp lot in Sedgefield will run you a minimum of $300,000, Colonial Village and Collins Park are becoming the affordable alternatives to Sedgefield.

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• Tara Servatius
• A row of 1940s homes in Biddleville, located between West Trade Street, I-77 and Brookshire Boulevard

A decade ago, Colonial Village, bounded by Park and Scaleybark roads, Hartford Avenue and South Boulevard, would have been thought of as a neighborhood on the edge of SouthPark. With the planned light rail line scheduled to begin running down the South Boulevard corridor next year, Colonial Village and other 1950s style 'hoods along the corridor with mature landscaping are now being recast as town neighborhoods with a direct link to downtown. With prices that run from the $180,000s to $270,000s for 1,500-to-1,800-square-foot houses, Colonial Village is quickly catching up to Sedgefield, though bargains can still be had if you're willing to pull down a little wallpaper, pick up a paint brush and perhaps update a kitchen.

The beauty of Colonial Village and nearby Collins Park and Madison Park is that in addition to being in town neighborhoods a 10 minute drive from downtown, they also back up to the Park Road Shopping Center area on the edge of Myers Park and are minutes from SouthPark.

Collins Park

The alternative to the alternative to the Sedgefield neighborhood along Park Road (see above for explanation), Collins Park is a real steal. For reasons that aren't clear, the renovation and turnover of the neighborhood's 1950s-era homes have gone a little slower in here, even though neighborhoods located further away from downtown down Park Road are posting higher prices for similar housing stock. This is a great place to look and homes now sell quickly when they come on the market. A buyer just snagged a beautifully renovated 1,200-square-foot house with perfect landscaping on Applegate Road for $170,000. Unrenovated homes are still in the low $100,000s.

Eventually, the market will figure out that something is out of whack here and the prices will shoot up to where they belong. In the meantime, somebody else is bound to get a good deal.

Madison Park

Madison Park became popular with 20- and 30-something renovator types about seven years ago, and they are beginning to cash out, which is quickly driving up prices. They've been getting $220,000 to $270,000 for their 1,500-to-1,800-square-foot 1950s-era homes, which is a real coup, because some recent sales indicate that home prices have doubled since 2000.

Madison Park, which is located between Park, Woodlawn and Tyvola roads and South Boulevard, has gone from slightly shabby around the edges to mostly trim and manicured in a relatively short period of time, and its lush green streets are great for walking off a day of employment stress.

The good news is that the first wave of renovators didn't get around to updating every home on the block, and houses that could use some paint and more modern fixtures can still be bought for $175,000 to $200,000.

Selwyn Park, located on the southern edge of Madison Park at the junction of Park Road and Seneca Place, is even more of a bargain, with houses still selling in the $140,000 to $170,000 range.

WEST OF DOWNTOWN

Seversville

Where? If long-time Charlotte residents associate the beginning of the Rozzelles Ferry/West Trade Street/Beatties Ford Road corridor with anything, it's probably crime, which is why the rapid change there has gone on largely under the radar. That's amazing considering that the area is just a half-mile walk to the I-77 bridge on the edge of downtown.

About eight years ago, bungalow-addicted renovators like real estate agent Dan De La Portilla descended upon the well-maintained, historic neighborhood of Wesley Heights (located between West Trade and Morehead streets) and were laughed at by their friends for plunking down $80,000 for a house in an area that still had gunshots, crack addicts and prostitutes. Today, those homes, fully renovated, start at about $300,000, but there are still enough of the original residents left to leave the neighborhood flavor. Now the momentum is beginning to spread past Walnut Street down Trade Street and Tuckaseegee Road to the Bruns Avenue area in Seversville and beyond.

Seversville is bounded by Wesley Heights Way, Beatties Ford Road, Rozzelles Ferry Road and Turner Avenue and is across the street from Johnson C. Smith University.

Neighboring Concepts, a local architecture and urban planning firm, is planning to redevelop a rundown acre along Bruns Avenue and West Trade Street, which was home to an old icehouse, with new shops, offices and multifamily units. Renters still dominate the Seversville area, but word about the momentum in this historic, diverse neighborhood is spreading fast.

On State Street, about five blocks from downtown, among the boarded up, renovated and partially renovated houses, sits a brand new 1,850-square-foot home a young attorney is in the process of buying. It has all the extras you can afford to put on a house over here -- soaring ceilings, detailed trim work, hardwoods, the works.

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• Tara Servatius
• A tree-lined street in Shamrock Gardens, just north of NoDa

Along the edges of the neighborhood, on the other end of State Street, runs the new greenway that stretches from here into the heart of downtown. Forget paying hundreds a months for a downtown parking spot. Here, parking downtown is what you do in your own driveway.

Biddleville/Smallwood

Again, where? About six years ago, attorney Charles Jones and his tearful wife, both residents of Trade Street, showed up at a Charlotte City Council meeting hollering for help in their fight to keep their neighborhood from descending into further criminal chaos. At the time, they said they feared for their lives every time they stepped out their front door.

Two weeks ago, Jones, his wife, a realtor and a community police officer caught up with each other across the street from Jones' home. Sure, it used to be bad here, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer K.D. Faulkner admitted as an area prostitute, clearly intoxicated and singing at the top of her lungs, strolled by, waving enthusiastically as she passed on through. Despite the ongoing presence of some of the neighborhood's more colorful characters, Faulkner says you're now more likely to be mugged or accosted in a SouthPark parking lot than you are here.

"Ten years ago, people were moving out," said Faulkner. "Now they are moving in and crime is decreasing. It's very safe. Everyone keeps their eyes on others' stuff now."

Today, if the neighborhood, which is located between West Trade Street, I-77 and Brookshire Boulevard, were to be associated with anything, it would have to be dumpsters, lots of them, parked in front of authentic period bungalows in the midst of renovation or along lots where new homes are rising from the ashes of what just a few years ago was a neighborhood on the edge.

The place is coming along so fast that unrenovated houses that sold for $35,000 two years ago go for $90,000 to $100,000 now. Half a block down from Jones' home, on the street where he and his wife once feared for their lives, renovated and new homes built in bungalow-style with beautiful hardwoods and soaring ceilings that sit next to boarded up 1930s mill houses go for more than $250,000.

For those who love areas where every resident is different, great deals and a ground floor opportunity to help build a neighborhood are still here to be had. The residents here will tell you that investor and real estate agent Mike Doney has poured his life and his money into the neighborhood, buying and renovating houses. Doney and a handful of investors, renovators and homeowners are behind the dumpsters popping up in yards all over the place, and his enthusiasm is catchy. Every fifth house, it seems, belongs to a friend of his who is renovating and moving in.

Like those the neighborhood seems to appeal to most, Doney, who is in his late 20s, isn't from around here. He grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, so he came here in 1999 with no preconceived notions about the west side. People who aren't from Charlotte see the housing stock and the proximity to downtown and just assume that the property will be valuable, Doney said. People from here have a harder time getting past old perceptions.

"People are so afraid to come over the highway," said Doney. "Once people come over here and investigate, they're pretty surprised about the things going on and how nice it really is. I could live in dozens after dozens of homes over here and have a nice big yard and trees and good stable neighbors around me, and just have to do a little bit of painting."

NORTH EAST OF DOWNTOWN/NODA AREA

Shamrock Gardens (aka Plaza Hills, Plaza Gardens, Shamrock Acres)

This area is so new on the hip 'hood scene that investors, owners and real estate agents haven't settled on what to call it yet.

At present, the North Davidson Arts District (NoDa) area, particularly the well-known section around 36th Street, is a mixture of run down and newly renovated homes. The beauty of the Shamrock Gardens neighborhood, which is located just to the north of but not in NoDa, is that it never reached the state of decay the NoDa area did and is still cute and relatively well preserved in its original form, particularly the area around Anderson and McMillan streets. Throw in the central location about 12 minutes from downtown, the mature landscape and the big shade trees, and you've got an adorable neighborhood with a mix of contemporary and bungalow-style homes. An 1,100-square-foot house on McMillan Street that's cute on the outside, but in need of a coat of paint on the inside, is currently on the market for $109,000. The neighborhood is both safe and diverse, with residents of different races and ages and a few young professionals beginning to move in.

Ritch and Benard Avenue Area

This neighborhood doesn't even have a name, but it is seriously cool. Its cheerleaders, like Neighborhood Realty real estate agent Alex Horstman, describe it as a "NoDa satellite neighborhood." The area, which runs along the part of 36th Street that's across the railroad tracks from NoDa, officially began to become cool when Hart Witzen Gallery moved to 136 E. 36th Street a few years back. Just two years ago, bungalow-style houses were still selling below $80,000. You can still get them for a bargain, or you can add to the brand new stock of $325,000 homes that area aficionados are building for themselves.

Horstman can barely contain his excitement as he drives through the area around Ritch and Bernard avenues, giving CL the grand tour.

"There's real big turnover in here," he enthuses. At every third house, it seems, someone is out there with a hammer, pounding away on homes built in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. On Benard, a developer is moving old homes from the Elizabeth area, plopping them down and renovating them. The Ritch/Benard area also backs up to North Tryon Street, for easy access to downtown.