Does Lake Norman NC have affordable housing?

Would you be surprised if I told you that there are 43 single family homes for sale in the towns surrounding Lake Norman that are listed UNDER $100,000? What you don’t see on most real estate websites about Lake Norman is any information about the modest older homes that are dotted about our more rural areas and clustered around our downtowns.

All of the communties of Mooresville, Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville and Troutman on the east side of Lake Norman truly have two distinct cultures that stem from their historic roots as railroad stopping points for our cotton farmers and the spectacular housing and retail growth along the lake in the past two decades.

The real estate developments on the west side of these Lake Norman towns that include all of the lake shore homes and much of the recent retail growth came about upon the completion of the I-77 in 1975.

However, east of I-77, are the roads that parallels the railroad tracks that run from Charlotte north to Statesville and beyond. It is around this old Main Street that most of our older homes can be found.

Our historic downtowns were all built along or in close proximity to Main Street in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. At the same time several large cotton mills were established, the most significant and long standing being the Burlington Mill in Mooresville that closed in 1998 and the Cannon Mill farther southeast in Kannapolis. The mill owners built self-sufficient villages or what we refer to as “mill houses” for their textile workers.

From 1902 – 1930 over 400 homes were built for the influx of cotton workers in Mooresville. A variety of floor plans were built; 3 bedroom T-shaped houses with front and back porches were most common.

Today, the modest historic homes and mill houses clustered around Main Street are just beginning to be appreciated by home buyers. And that means they are still affordable! Of the 18 active real estate listings under $100,000 that are not mobile homes, 14 are mill houses located in the Historic Mooresville Mill Village. They range in size from 640 sq. ft. to just over 1200 sq. ft.; were built between 1911 to 1970 and range in price from $65,000 – $99,900.

Throughout the South there is a textile heritage movement as well as a growing appreciation for historic homes and preservation.

The residents of homes in the Mooresville Mill Village have organized their efforts to renovate and restore these special pieces of living history by creating the Mooresville Mill Village Historic District. On their website you can learn more about the history, as well as their current restoration efforts.

Once the urban village development Mooresville Mills, which will be built on the site of the old Burlington Mill, is completed the real estate values in the entire mill area will be exciting to watch

LEARN MORE ABOUT HISTORIC MOORESVILLE

27 Reasons to Visit Historic Downtown Mooresville Part 1

27 Reasons to Visit Historic Downtown Mooresville Part 2

27 Reasons to Visit Historic Downtown Mooresville Part 3

Mooresville on Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live!

Fresh Sushi, Hush Puppies, The Scoop About Relocating to Mooresville

Historic Main Street and Face Jugs…Learning about the Heart of Mooresville