Chatham Park - North Carolina

[David Gaudet]

I own two short term rental properties out of state that do very well. I am interested in adding something a little closer to Raleigh (where I live) and have it be a long term rental. Chatham Park is very intriguing to me. I was not sure if anyone had any information about Chatham Park. Also, I was hoping to get thoughts around new construction in terms of long term rentals.

[Steven Griffith]

For everyone's info, this is a new development currently ongoing in Pittsboro, NC - just south of Chapel Hill off of 15-501. By ongoing, I mean planned with a lost of the initial groundwork being done. No housing yet. It's a mixed use community - supposed to have apartments, townhome, SFH, restaurants, shops, schools, etc. There are some restaurants and storefronts opened now, however. I'm also interested in this area, so I've been doing my own research.

@David Gaudet when you have the time, take a drive down to Pittsboro.  The developers have recently opened a store front in downtown Pittsboro where they have all the plans for Chatham Park laid out, along with estimated timelines.  I was there a few weeks ago and it was really helpful.  You can see where the SFHs will be schools, restaurants, townhomes, etc and get a rough idea of when different phases will be open.  Some of the information is here:  https://www.chathampark.com/.  Regarding eventual plans, here's a quote from an article about a year ago: 

"Eventually, Chatham Park is expected to have 22,000 homes, along with stores and offices. The development will be broken up into four or five villages that are made up of neighborhoods."

@Mike Hyder makes some great points about the pros and cons of buying new.  The one additional thing I would add is, given the scope of Chatham Park and the fact that there are no homes now, if you're going to invest here then consider investing early.  Developers raise the prices of homes in a neighborhood as time goes on.  If you buy your new home early during a neighborhood's development, you will have purchased your house for less than someone who buys the exact same house a year or more later.  And certainly for less than someone who buys their house 5-10 years later.  While I doubt you'd be able to do anything to force the appreciation of the house initially (as it's a brand new house...), there is almost an inherent appreciation because the developer will raise the base price of the house every couple months.  Especially around the Triangle area, as I'm sure you know.