Wave Of Charlotteans Moving To Surrounding Cities

CHARLOTTE, NC — We are living in one of the fastest growing areas of the country and the Census data proves it.

From July 1, 2022 to July 1 2023, about 53 people moved to Mecklenburg county each day. With the expansion, comes a growing economy and growing pains.

Maybe the best representation of Charlotte’s substantial growth in the last decade is in South End. Waves of young professionals, new business, and the endless construction.

“South End of course is growing rapidly,” said Corey Correll.

Correll is the Economic Research Specialist for the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. His numbers show many of the out-of-towners are heading south from the Northeast.

“Around 6,000 or so annually are coming from New York,” said Correll.

David Digioia has been a realtor in the Charlotte area for 20 years. He’s seeing a wave rushing to cities outside of Charlotte like Huntersville, Davidson and Mooresville to get more bang for their buck.

“These are all people who have been in Charlotte for a long time, and now they can’t afford what they want,” explained Digioia.

Affordable housing and crowded roads are of course top of the list as far as concerns for a growing metropolitan. But, as Digioia points out, it’s not just the traffic that’s congested.

“The congestion that we’re seeing, if you just go shopping in the stores, restaurants, it now takes an hour and a half to get a reservation or to go to the local restaurant. And that wasn’t like that ten, 12 years ago,” said Digioia.

From the start of pandemic until July of 2023, Mecklenburg County added 48,167 residents. That’s a 4% population increase.