Just three years ago, you could have picked up a single family home in Charlotte, North Carolina for $168,000. Today, that same home will run you $220,000. The housing market of the center of the Carolinas keeps chugging forward as jobs continue outstripping the supply of homes.

The U.S. Department of Commerce ranks Charlotte number one in 2007 in its affordability index for cities with population between 400-thousand and 1-million. Meanwhile, CharlotteChamber.com maintains a mother lode of information for investors to research in deciding where to buy real estate in this growing metropolis.

Housing permits have skyrocketed year after year. In 2006, residential building shot up 33 percent to more than 18-thousand single-family and apartment units. In 10 years, builders have added more than 135-thousand new homes in the surrounding region. Will it keep on growing?

Mark Vitner, a senior economist with the Wachovia Corporation, says, "The inventory of new homes on the market remains relatively lean, and building moratoriums in some surrounding areas are keeping a relatively tight lid on new supply."

In his economic forecast for 2008 in the Charlotte Region, Vitner adds that "even though Charlotte is one of the nation's largest financial centers, the city has largely escaped a direct hit from the housing slump and mortgage market troubles."

Others have taken notice, as well. Expansion Management magazine has ranked Charlotte number two as the second-best large market for recruiting in new business. In the first half of 2007, 590 firms announced new investments in the area of more than 1-billion dollars.