https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FstF3EfPTXc

If you are looking at SouthPark or Myers Park, or anywhere between Selwyn Avenue and Fairview Road, stop scrolling for a second, because these two neighborhoods are changing more in the next 18 months than they have in years. Symphony Park is closing for a $21 million makeover. A tower up to 275 feet tall is proposed across from the mall. Queens University just got a new name and a law school is coming. And Mecklenburg County's new values show a median residential increase of about 15 percent. Plus, in one of these neighborhoods almost a third of homes sold for more than asking this year, even in a tighter market with rates rising. Here are seven things buyers should know, and which neighborhood that is.

Symphony Park's $21 Million Makeover

Symphony Park is the green heart of SouthPark, right next to the mall, and one of my favorite places in Charlotte. This fall it closes for a complete overhaul: 7.4 acres, more than $21 million, with about $8 million from the City of Charlotte, about $8 million from Simon Property Group for two anchor restaurants, plus private fundraising. Construction runs from fall 2026 to fall 2027. The new park is planned with an open air pavilion, a bigger playground, a waterfront boardwalk, cafe dining, a 500 foot section of the Loop trail, and capacity to grow from about 80 events a year to about 250.

Short term, SouthPark After 5 and the summer concerts take a year off. Long term, SouthPark gets a true town green with restaurants on the water, walkable from thousands of homes and apartments: Saturday coffee by the pond, a playground the kids actually want, free concerts and movie nights most weeks. Those are the things buyers pay for when you sell someday. Public private park projects often run over budget and this one has already seen rising costs, so treat fall 2027 as a goal, not a guarantee. But if you buy within walking distance, you are buying next to what will likely become SouthPark's front yard.

SouthPark Mall Keeps Adding Luxury

SouthPark Mall has always been known for luxury, and it keeps adding stores that tell you exactly where SouthPark is headed: Tile Bar, a design showroom, opened in April, a luxury watch boutique carrying IWC and expanded showrooms arrived this summer, and Suitsupply is on the way. While a lot of malls around the country are struggling, including some just outside Charlotte, SouthPark keeps betting on people buying and renovating expensive homes nearby, and they are not wrong. The flip side is traffic. Sharon Road and Fairview at 5 p.m., especially in late November and December, will test anyone's patience. If you are looking at a home right on Fairview, Sharon or Morrison, think about how often you will drive through that intersection, and look a few blocks back for a quieter street.

SouthPark Is Becoming Charlotte's Second Skyline

Across from the mall, Houston based Hines has proposed a mixed use tower on about 3.88 acres on Carnegie Boulevard, up to 275 feet tall, with residential, office, ground floor retail and restaurants plus open space, and the rezoning is underway. As Adam Rose of SouthPark Community Partners put it, Carnegie is going to mature into a really important spine of the SouthPark district. At Phillips Place, on the old movie theater site, a previously proposed 10 story office tower was scrapped in July 2026, and Mid-America Apartment Communities filed plans for 275 apartments with up to 15,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space.

SouthPark is shifting from an office park with a mall to a place where thousands of people live. As more people live in the core, the businesses that need foot traffic follow: coffee shops, fitness studios, wine bars and independent restaurants. If you are buying a single family home in the neighborhoods around SouthPark, this growth is mostly upside, more walkability without changing your street. If you are buying a condo or townhome in the core, a lot more supply is coming, which can keep resale prices in check, so buy it for the lifestyle, not a quick flip.

The Loop Trail Is Taking Shape

All those new residents need a way to get around without a car. The Loop is a planned three mile urban trail tying the whole district together. So far only pieces are built, about 400 feet on Roxborough Road, about 800 feet on Carnegie Boulevard and about 642 feet on Piedmont Row Drive, plus new crosswalks at three intersections and a 500 foot section planned in the Symphony Park redesign. The vision is a protected path from your condo to dinner, the mall and Symphony Park without fighting traffic. It is being built piece by piece as properties redevelop and still needs easements and funding, so a continuous loop is years away, but every new project in SouthPark is being asked to build its piece.

Queens Becomes Elon, With a Law School in Myers Park

Queens University of Charlotte, in the heart of Myers Park, is now Elon University Queens College as part of its merger with Elon. Elon will open a full time law school on the Myers Park campus in fall 2027, Charlotte's first new law school in about a decade, and the campus is projected to grow from about 1,600 to 2,500 students with law and health sciences programs. Expect steady demand from faculty and graduate students for rentals and smaller homes, plus more cars on Selwyn Avenue and Queens Road at certain times. If you are looking right next to campus, visit on a weekday morning. Older homes and condos within a mile or two could see steady demand both to buy and to rent, which is worth knowing if you are considering a small investment property. For Myers Park overall, a growing university with a national brand is a plus.

The 2027 Tax Revaluation

Every property in Mecklenburg County has been revalued for 2027, and values are going up. Preliminary median increases by value band are about 16 percent for the lowest band and about 11 percent for $300,000 to $500,000 homes, with larger changes in some higher bands. A higher assessed value does not automatically raise your bill by the same percentage, because the county and city set new rates after a revaluation, often lower. But in high value neighborhoods like Myers Park and SouthPark, your share of the bill could still rise. Say a home goes from $1 million to $1.15 million. If the rate drops enough to be revenue neutral, the bill barely changes. If it drops only a little, or your value rose more than the county median, your bill goes up. New rates are set in the 2027 budget process next spring. If you are buying in 2027, do not rely on last year's tax bill. If you already own, check your value for errors like wrong square footage or bathroom count, and appeal if it is wrong. It is free and can save you thousands.

Duplexes and Triplexes Under the UDO

Since mid 2023, Charlotte's Unified Development Ordinance allows duplexes and triplexes on most lots that used to be single family only, and some of the early activity is in South Charlotte, including SouthPark area neighborhoods and Sedgefield, with at least one builder identifying eight or more triplex sites. If you buy an older ranch on a big lot near SouthPark, the house next door could become a triplex someday. On the flip side, if you own that lot, it may be worth more to a builder. In the core of Myers Park, where homes sell well over $1 million, a triplex rarely pencils out, so you will mostly see single family rebuilds. The change is more likely at the edges, where smaller older homes sit on bigger lots. Before you buy, look at the lots around you, not just the house.

SouthPark vs Myers Park Side by Side

SouthPark: median sales price about $700,000, up 6 percent year over year, about 39 days on market, with about 31 percent of homes selling above list, served by Lansdowne Elementary, rated 9 out of 10. It is for you if you want shopping, dining and walkability in one place and a wide range of options, from condos and townhomes near the mall to classic brick ranches and rebuilds in neighborhoods like Barclay Downs and Foxcroft, a short drive to Ballantyne, Uptown and South End.

Myers Park: median sales price about $1.6 million, about 45 days on market, served by Myers Park High, Alexander Graham Middle, and Selwyn and Eastover Elementary. It is for you if you want Charlotte's most iconic neighborhood: historic homes, century old oaks arching over the streets, Freedom Park nearby and Uptown five to ten minutes away. You are paying for prestige, location and a neighborhood that has held its value through every cycle. A SouthPark Saturday might be coffee at Phillips Place, the mall and dinner at Piedmont Row. A Myers Park Saturday might be a run on the Booty Loop under the oaks and a morning at Freedom Park with the kids. If Myers Park is a stretch, look at Cotswold, Madison Park or Montclaire for a similar location at a different price point.

The Real Answer

The neighborhood where almost a third of homes sold above asking is SouthPark. About 31 percent of homes sold above list price over the most recent three months, while across much of the Charlotte area homes are selling below asking with longer days on market. When headlines say it is a buyer's market, that is true in a lot of Charlotte suburbs, but not everywhere. In SouthPark, the right home, updated, well priced and on a good street, still draws multiple offers. If that is what you want, be ready to move fast with a strategy for competing without overpaying.

Book a call in the links below and let us help you find the right park, and the right street, for your budget and the life you want here.