Nearly one in three homes listed for sale in the Charlotte metro area is a new build. Fort Mill's rapid growth is part of the trend that pushed the region up the national rankings.
The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro jumped to No. 4 in Realtor.com's 2026 Top New-Construction Metros report, up from No. 9 in 2025. The report, published Aug. 31 by senior economic research analyst Joel Berner, ranks the 10 U.S. markets with the best mix of availability, affordability, sustainability and desirability for new homes.
New builds account for 29.5% of the metro's for-sale listings. The median new-construction listing price is $440,177, compared with $420,383 for existing homes.
Charlotte is the largest metro on the top-10 list. York County ZIP code 29745 and Lancaster County's 29720 are among the local areas with the most new-construction listings, according to WSOC-TV's reporting on the data.
Fort Mill's population reached an estimated 38,673 as of mid-2025, growing at 6.8%, the fastest rate of any city in the Charlotte metro, according to Census Bureau data reported by Fortune in May. The Census Bureau used Fort Mill and Charlotte to illustrate a national trend, according to The Post and Courier: Charlotte added more residents (20,731) than any other U.S. city but ranked only seventh-fastest-growing in its own metro area. Fort Mill ranked first.
That pace has strained local infrastructure. Fort Mill Town Council adopted a temporary moratorium on new residential rezoning, annexation and preliminary plat applications on March 31, according to Ordinance 2026-19. The moratorium, which was extended once before, is set to expire Sept. 30 unless the council extends it again. Commercial-only projects and developments with prior final approval are exempt.
"We have been drinking water out of a firehose for some time," Mayor Guynn Savage told The Charlotte Ledger in February, as reported by WFAE. The town said the pause would allow it to complete comprehensive plan updates.
Fort Mill School District enrollment reflects the building boom. The district has grown 30% over the past decade and is approaching 19,000 students, according to The Post and Courier. Flint Hill Middle School on Gold Hill Road opened in August for 1,000 students.
Six of the 10 metros on the national list are in North or South Carolina: Charleston at No. 1, Greenville at No. 2, Charlotte at No. 4, Winston-Salem at No. 7, Durham-Chapel Hill at No. 9 and Columbia at No. 10. Realtor.com noted that land is more available and less costly in the Southeast, where zoning and building codes tend to be more builder-friendly.
Fort Mill's moratorium expires Sept. 30. Whether the council extends it or lifts it will shape how much new construction the town absorbs next.
