Carolina Airparks
In July 2016 we found a house in a local airpark community that the owner had been trying to sell for several years.  He had listed

the house with various agents in various agencies but had not found a buyer.  Most airpark homes are rurally located where local

comps did not support the values of these unique homes.  

My husband Bruce took one look at the house and said, "I can sell this house."  We went home to create our web site NC-Airparks.com.  And Bruce did sell the house.  

Interest in NC-Airparks.com took off.  Interested buyers contacted us while we began to investigate and research all of the airfields we could find in North Carolina.  We collected information creating an informative data base of information about both active and defunct airstrips.  We learned the many problems buyers ran into by blindly buying properties on these airstrips.  Most buyers didn't know how to protect the costs they were putting into the airfield properties they were buying.  There is no real estate course that teaches agents how to protect residential aviator buyers from the unique problems some of these buyers have experienced.  

We collected restrictive covenants and other information about these airstrips, met with developers and eventually we were contacted

by the NC DOT Department of Aviation.  We had some information they didn't have so we shared.

Early in 2007 Bruce was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Despite his health and our limited time and resources, the business flourished finishing 2007 with the most sales we have had.  Bruce died in April 2008 but when I returned to our office the economy had completely dried up sales.  Only a few foreclosures and one or two "give away" sales occurred in residential aviation properties the following years.  There was little interest from buyers who by now were struggling with their own economy issues.  Retirees couldn't sell their homes in other states so they couldn't buy here, lot owners couldn't build the dream homes they had planned, some aviators experienced health issues losing coveted medicals and others just plain lost interest in building a new home.  Eight years made the world of difference in the lives of pilots who dreamed of "living with their planes".  The residential aviation market was dead not only in North Carolina but in states all across the US.

The Spring of 2015 brought the first hopes of recovery in this unique market niche.  Easter of 2015 our web site began to experience an enormous increase in visits by complete strangers.  Buyers began signing up for our newsletter indicating an increase in interest in residential airpark properties.  A few buyers bought houses and many owners began re-listing their lots and homes for sale.  Some properties had been on and off the market for years, some as far back as 2007.  The market was flooded with listings.  But ready willing and able buyers were few. 

This past Memorial Day weekend 2016 was when the first calls came in from serious buyers ready to buy.  This time buyers wanted existing houses; no buyers were interested in buying a lot and building a house of unknown cost.  Since Memorial Day many hangar homes have sold, especially those modestly priced.  This trend continued throughout the summer of 2016.  There are few modestly priced homes left for sale.  Some of the more expensive homes remain on the active market while others have sold, indicating the trend toward increased prices for hangar homes.  Buyers are becoming more selective in the homes they are buying and sale prices are going up slowly. 

Some buyers are now saying they will consider buying a lot if they cannot find just the right hangar home for them.  Today's lot buyers are not long-term investors as they were before the recession.  Today's lot buyers are ready to build now or in the near future.  They price housing costs before they buy and they are more serious and less dreaming about their purchases.

For Sellers, we advertise your properties in major aviation publications and on various aviation web sites.  You may not care if your buyer is an aviator but the health of aviation communities depends upon buyers with aviation interest.  When you look up sales in aviation communities keep in mind that those sale prices include an agent commission.  So you may sell your property yourself, but buyers expect to pay much less when they buy from you.  One buyer told me that he sold his house for a particular amount but when I evaluated his sale, I found that he could have pocketed almost $30K more had his property been properly advertised on the open market.  He lost a lot of money.