Charlotte Overview

Welcome to Charlotte!

Charlotte is the largest and most accessible city in North Carolina. It is known as "the International Gateway to the South” since travelling to Charlotte is easy from anywhere in the country or the world.

Centrally located, the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport can have you in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York or Washington DC in less than a 2.5 hour flight. The Charlotte-Douglas International Airport is the seventh-busiest in the world -it's located 15 minutes from uptown Charlotte.

Charlotte Arts and Culture

Charlotte is a rising metropolitan area with a distinctive culture, culinary sophistication and unique feel which makes this vibrant city an enticing place to settle down.

Home to Johnson & Wales Culinary University, the Charlotte area does not lack in fine restaurants with innovative cuisine.

People can enjoy the city’s endless dining options, wineries, local breweries and exquisite cooking as well as international favorites and national franchises.

As for the Arts District, Charlotte has a very good mix of art venues to explore. 

The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center offers it's Broadway Lights series each year, while the Mint Museum, the Harvey Gantt Center and the Levine Museum of the New South each offer a style of their own.

Below is a very short list of what is available in the Charlotte Art scene:

• Discovery Place
• Children’s Theatre of Charlotte
• Charlotte Symphony
• Arts and Science Council
• Charlotte Art League
• Mint Museum
• Theatre Charlotte
• Opera Carolina

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Park System

Truly a jewel in the Queen City's crown, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Greenway system continues to grow, weaving miles and miles of woodland and wetland areas together with trails, bridges and pocket parks.

The Charlotte Greenway system can be found from Huntersville to Ballantyne. These are beautifully crafted trails perfect for walking, jogging, biking and just enjoying nature's bounty throughout the Charlotte region. 

Besides the Greenway system, you'll find plenty of parks - big and small - offering recreational fields, separate dog parks, picnic and BBQ areas and just playgrounds with bench seating available throughout the city.

The most notable park in the city is in the Myers Park area near uptown Charlotte, and that's  Freedom Park. 

Freedom Park was beautifully created with lakes, arching bridges, ball fields, an amphitheater and so much more.

Other areas of interest to take you into the great outdoors, may be a day trip to the NC Zoo or more locally, the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville.

• Paramount’s Carowinds
• Mecklenburg County Parks
• Carolina Raptor Center
• N.C. Zoological Park – Asheboro

Charlotte Sports and Recreation

Charlotte has great teams and pro-players to cheer on. From high-energy NASCAR races, the NFL Panthers, NBA Hornets, the Charlotte Knights Baseball team and Golf, Golf, Golf, where you can cheer on your own team, there's plenty of sports to choose from!

In the Spring, Charlotte is host to the Wells Fargo Championship Tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, and in 2017, Quail Hollow was also honored to host the PGA Championship tournament.

Here's a list of local teams:

• Baseball uptown - Charlotte Knights
• Hockey - Charlotte Checkers
• Horse Racing at the Charlotte Steeplechase
• NASCAR at Lowe’s Motor Speedway
• N.C. Auto Racing Hall of Fame
• NBA - Charlotte Hornets
• NFL Carolina Panthers
• Soccer - Charlotte Eagles

Charlotte Economy

The central location and low taxes make Charlotte a highly sought out business location with the likes of Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Met-life placing a foothold on it. Charlotte is ranked #2 in the world of finance, right behind New York. A diverse commercial and industrial economy has developed around the financial industry.

Charotte has a healthy economy and is home to 16 Fortune 1000 companies headquartered here including: Bank of America, Belk (local retail favorite), Carlisle, Duke Energy, Domtar, Family Dollar, Lowe’s, CommScope, Curtiss-Wright, Nucor, Harris Teeter Supermarkets (a local favorite), Babcok & Wilcox, Sonic Automotive, SPX, Resolute Forest Products, and American Tire Distributors.

As mentioned previously, Charlotte is also the country's second largest banking center with $2.13 trillion in assets held. As the nation’s 2nd-largest banking center, Charlotte has more than 67,000 financial services sector employees.

It also has 25,000 IT workers in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC metro areas. And more than 75 call centers and back offices with over 20 employing more than 500 workers.

Charlotte's highly efficient and growing interstate and shipping system provides business a central hub to move things quickly. It consistently ranks as one of the top growing cities in the country.

Charlotte Education

Other amenities that make Charlotte a great place to live and work include numerous higher learning organizations, cultural centers and health care facilities.

• UNC Charlotte
• Davidson College
• Johnson and Wales
• Johnson C. Smith University
• Queens College in Myers Park

Charlotte - Mecklenburg Public School Information:

• Charlotte - Mecklenburg Public Schools - Switchboard…..980-343-6220
• Exceptional Children……….980-343-6960
• International Center………..980-343-3784
• Magnet Schools…………….980-343-5030
• Public Information………….980-343-7450
• Student Placement…………980-343-5335
• Superintendent……………..980-343-6717
• Talent Development………..980-343-6955
• Transportation………………980-343-6715

The Charlotte Real Estate Market

Charlotte is a region of small neighborhoods, each with a distinctive feel and energy. The downtown area is a mix of contemporary skyscraper architecture along with a number of well-preserved 19th-century neighborhoods.

There are plenty of housing options in the downtown area but many residents choose to live in the neighborhoods surrounding the city center.

For those looking to buy a property, there are a lot of homes for sale in Charlotte including luxury houses, town-homes and condos.

There are many houses for sale in Charlotte that offer great amenities, luxurious features, spacious floor plans and superb location. The towns bordering Charlotte proper each have a distinct feel of their own. As described in our "About" pages.