A four-bedroom home at 226 Carters Farm Drive closed in May 2026 for $539,900, built in 2023 and priced at $248 a square foot. Two months later, a farmhouse-style listing went active a few doors down at 198 Carters Farm Drive, close enough to Statesville Country Club that the listing mentions it by name. Between those two addresses sits the question most sellers in this Statesville neighborhood are quietly asking right now: if homes are taking longer to go under contract, does that mean buyers have gained leverage on price?
The data says no. And the reason why is worth understanding before you set a list price or write an offer here.
The number that looks like bad news
Across the 28625 zip code that contains Carters Farm, the most recent 90-day stretch measured this summer told two different stories depending on which stat you looked at. Homes went under contract after a median of 55 cumulative days on market, nearly double the 26 days recorded over the same window a year earlier. Read alone, that looks like a market cooling fast.
But in that same 90-day period, homes that actually sold closed at a median of 97.8% of asking price. Median price per square foot across the zip code rose 9.3% year over year to $188. Sellers are waiting longer for a buyer to show up, but they are not discounting to make one appear faster.
That gap between pace and price is the actual story in Carters Farm right now. A slower clock and a firm number are not contradictory. They are what a patient market looks like from the inside, where sellers who don't need to move fast are holding their number and buyers who want in are willing to wait for the right house rather than negotiate an average one down.
Carters Farm's own recent sales back this up at the neighborhood level. Over the trailing 12 months, 7 single-family homes sold there at a median price of $467,000 and a median $248 per square foot, the same per-foot figure the 226 Carters Farm Drive sale landed on almost exactly. That consistency across a small sample is itself a signal. When comparable homes keep landing on the same price-per-square-foot number month after month, it means the market has already agreed on what square footage is worth here. The variable left to explain is everything square footage doesn't capture.
What actually separates a full-price offer from a slow one
Here is where the neighborhood's own paperwork does something more interesting than any citywide trend line. Carters Farm was built out by Windstone Estates, and its homeowners association fee structure is not one flat number. A standard lot carries a $125 annual HOA fee. A pond lot carries that same $125 fee plus a second, separate $200 annual assessment specific to pond lots, confirmed on the CC&Rs filed for the community.
| Lot type | Annual HOA fee | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Standard lot | $125 | Carters Farm Homeowners Association |
| Pond lot | $125 + $200 | Standard HOA plus a second, pond-lot-specific assessment |
That $200 line item is not a rounding error or an administrative quirk. It is the builder and the HOA agreeing, in writing, that pond frontage is a distinct asset that carries its own carrying cost, separate from the house sitting on it. A new Windstone Estates build on a premium pond lot recently listed at $624,900 for 2,504 square feet, sitting at the top of the range Carters Farm homes have occupied over the past two years, roughly $440,000 to $625,000.
That is the mechanism behind the "slower but not cheaper" pattern showing up in the zip-code data. When a specific, named feature like pond frontage carries its own fee structure, it also carries its own buyer pool. Those buyers are not comparison shopping against every three-bedroom colonial in Statesville. They are waiting for a pond lot, and they will wait 55 days or more for one rather than settle for a standard lot at a discount. That patience is what holds the median price per square foot steady even as the overall selling timeline stretches.
What this means if you're pricing a home here
If you're preparing to list in Carters Farm, the 55-day median is not a number to price around defensively. Iredell County recorded 474 single-family home sales in the 28625 zip code in the 12 months ending in August 2026, so buyer volume in the broader area has not dried up. What has changed is how long a well-priced home sits before the right buyer, not any buyer, shows up. Pricing a standard lot to move in two weeks by shaving off five or six percent works against the pattern the data actually shows. Homes here are closing at 97.8% of ask. A price cut chasing speed usually costs more than the extra weeks on market would have.
If your home sits on a pond lot, that second HOA line item is not a liability to bury in the listing. It is documentation that the lot itself has been priced as a distinct asset since the neighborhood was platted. Buyers who understand what that fee buys will not blink at it. Buyers who don't should hear the explanation from you before they hear the surprise from a closing statement.
What this means if you're buying here
A longer time-to-contract does not mean you have room to lowball. It means the seller you're competing against for a good house has probably already decided not to accept a low offer just because the calendar has stretched. Where you do have room to ask questions is on the fee structure itself. Before writing an offer on any Carters Farm lot, confirm in writing whether it carries the standard $125 assessment alone or the standard fee plus the additional pond-lot charge, and ask to see the current CC&Rs so there's no ambiguity about what's owed and when.
A few questions worth asking before you write an offer
Does every home near water in Carters Farm pay the pond-lot fee? No. The extra assessment is tied to lot designation in the HOA's governing documents, not simply visual proximity to water. Confirm the specific lot's status directly rather than assuming based on the view.
Does the slower market mean sellers are more open to negotiating? The data doesn't support that assumption. A median 97.8% of asking price over the most recent 90 days suggests sellers who list correctly are holding close to their number even as the process takes longer.
Is Windstone Estates still building in the neighborhood? New construction from Windstone Estates has continued to appear in recent listings, generally at the top of the neighborhood's price range and often on premium or pond-adjacent lots.
Carters Farm rewards buyers and sellers who read past the median. The neighborhood's own fee structure already tells you which features carry weight, and the current market data tells you that patience, not price cuts, is what's actually moving these homes. If you're weighing a purchase or a listing here and want someone who has already worked through what these numbers mean for your specific lot, David Salmonsen Realty is ready to talk through it.
