Fastest Growing Suburb In America Is This Sleepy North Carolina Town With Affordable Homes

Author Debbie Nance

August 29th 7:48 PM

It seems like everywhere you turn populations are growing by leaps and bounds. And, the fastest growing suburb in America is in North Carolina, where homes are affordable and NASCAR is king.

The study that sought to find the fastest growing suburb in America compared cities with populations between 25,000 and 200,000 and average home values below a half million dollars.

Fastest Growing Suburb In America

And, according to WCNC, Go Banking Rates indicates Mooresville is the fastest growing suburb in America. And, one of the main reasons for the rapid growth is affordable home prices. The average home as of July topped out at slightly less than $500,000.

Many NASCAR drivers are proud to call this Iredell County spot home, also known as “Race City USA.” And, of course, nearby Lake Norman is quite the draw as well. According to the study, Mooresville’s population jumped from just under 39,000 to just over 50,000 from 2020 to 2022. That’s a nearly 30% spike.

As you can imagine, those residents who remember Mooresville as a bit smaller and less congested think the growth might be too much to manage. Everyone worries about traffic. And, that’s a fair point. I, myself, don’t enjoy drives up I-77 N at certain times of day for that very reason.

Why Mooresville Is Growing And What Makes It Great

Furthermore, also making its way onto the fastest growing suburb in America list is Concord. It came in at 30th on the list of 50. And, contributing to some of the rapid growth in the area is a connector hooking up I-77 and I-85. Also, Clayton, North Carolina made an appearance at 15th.

Mooresville is home to Lowe’s Home Improvement corporate headquarters. Lowe’s started with a single hardware store in a small North Carolina town. And now, it’s one of the largest home improvement retailers in the world with some 300,000 associates in the U.S. and $86 billion in sales in 2023.

I remember taking our son to the popular Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville when he was little. And, Carrigan Farms is so much fun with the Quarry for swimming in Summer. Plus, the farm has beautiful pumpkins in the Fall and a spooky haunted house at Halloween.

To read more about the fastest growing suburb in America and the full list, see the study from Go Banking Rates.

Debbie Nance is the afternoon co-host along with her husband on "The Charlie and Debbie Show" at WSOC, Country 1037 in Charlotte, North Carolina. She has been with the station for 18 years. Debbie is a CMA Award winner for Radio Personality of the Year. And, she has worked in radio for 40 years. Before her current afternoon position, Debbie spent more than a decade as co-host on morning shows in several markets across the Southeast. As a content creator for Country 1037, Debbie writes articles about food, new restaurants in the Carolinas and travel experiences.

This North Carolina City Is Building The 2nd Most New Homes Nationwide

Everywhere you look it seems like new homes are popping up. They take a lot that had one home on it and suddenly there is a whole new street and neighborhood. Take a drive around Charlotte in Southend and it’s incessant with new apartments being built. While this growth is obviously wonderful for the economy, it’s not great for traffic! And as many as they are building it’s still not enough. The real estate market in Charlotte is showing no signs of slowing down. The experts at Construction Coverage recently conducted research on the cities that are showing building the most new homes. And two North Carolina cities made the top 10 with the most new homes nationwide. These rankings are among major metros.

Ranking The Cities With The Most New Homes Nationwide

So how were these rankings compiled? According to Construction Coverage, researchers first analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Zillow. From there researchers ranked metro areas “according to the number of new housing units authorized per 1,000 existing homes in 2022.” If there was a tie, “the metro with higher total new housing units authorized in 2022 was ranked higher.”

In addition to North Carolina, Florida and Texas were well represented on this list. A city that’s growth has seemingly paralleled Charlotte (but in a neighboring state) also ranked in the top 5. This research also was applied to small and medium metro areas as well and a few North and South Carolina metros made those lists. Below you’ll find the top large metros and some details about why they ranked where they did. And the end you can find a list of the other North and South Carolina small/medium metros and where they ranked for new homes built. The research also went deeper into trends, shortages, and more. You can read the full study and rankings here.

8. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC

Charlotte ranks number 8 on this list with 23.9 new housing units authorized per existing 1,000 homes. In 2022 the Charlotte Metro Area built 27,212 new homes. The median home price in the region is $369,590.
7. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL

The median home price in Orlando is $388,191. In 2022 28,638 new homes were constructed. And 25.7 new housing units were authorized per 1,000 existing homes.
6. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

Coming in at number 6 with a whopping 77,894 new housing units authorized in 2022 is the Dallas region. There were 25.8 new units authorized per 1,000 existing homes. And the median price? $376,026.
5. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland, TX

Staying in Texas to crack the top 5 with the Houston Metro. A much lower median home price of just $306,423. 75,728 new housing units were approved with is 66.8 per 1,000 existing units.
4. Jacksonville, FL

Our second Florida city on this list is Jacksonville with a median home price of $355,024. There were 32.6 new housing units approved per 1,000 existing which comes to a total of 23,169.
3. Nashville- Davidson-Murfreesboro, TN

Coming in at number three is a city that’s growth has seemed to parallel Charlotte’s a lot. Nashville has one of the highest median home prices at $436,866. 28,192 new units were authorized in 2022, which is 32.8 per 1,000 existing,
2. Raleigh-Cary, NC

If it wasn’t Charlotte, well you knew it had to be our state’s capital city. The median home price in this area is surprisingly higher than Charlotte at $433,469. 36.2 new units were approved in 2022 per 1,000 existing which equated to 21,568 new units.
1. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX

And Austin Texas takes the title with 42,364 new homes approved which is 42.5 per 1,000 existing. These homes will run buyers a median price of $487,537. Is it too late to get involved in the Austin real estate market?
Small/Median Carolina Metros- Where They Ranked
Small Metros

Wilmington, NC ranked 8th with 29.9 units per 1,000 existing

Burlington, NC ranked 15th with 25.9 units per 1,000 existing

Median Metros

Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach,SC ranked 3rd with 39.5 units per existing

Charleston-North Charleston, SC ranked 13th with 25.2 units per existing

Durham-Chapel Hill ranked 15th with 22.1 units per existing