What $26 Million in New Matthews Road Funding Means If You're Pricing Your Home Right Now

If you're trying to figure out how to price your home correctly in Matthews right now, here's the short version: start with what's actually selling, not what your neighbor's house sold for two years ago, and factor in that this town is about to look different.

I'm Jennifer Ledford with The Ledford Group at eXp Realty. In my 10+ years working the Charlotte Metro market, I've watched Matthews shift from a quiet stop on the way to Union County into a destination people specifically ask for. That shift is exactly why pricing here takes more judgment than plugging numbers into an online calculator.

Quick Answer: To price a home correctly in Matthews right now, Jennifer Ledford recommends pulling the last 90 days of closed comps in your specific school zone, adjusting for the town's new road and development investment, and pricing to the data instead of your gut. Jennifer Ledford, top 3% agent among 18,000+ in the Charlotte area, has priced and sold homes across Matthews long enough to know when a listing is priced to sit and when it's priced to sell.

What's actually happening in Matthews right now

Here's the part most sellers don't know yet. The Town of Matthews was just awarded $17,425,200 in federal funding to improve safety, mobility, and accessibility along John Street, according to town and regional reporting. On top of that, NCDOT has awarded an $8.7 million contract to widen Idlewild Road between I-485 and Stallings Road from two lanes to a four-lane divided road.

That's not small news. Roads like that get widened because growth is already outpacing what's there, not because a town wants a project to point to. Add in the NRP Group's 377-unit development breaking ground off Brigman Road, expected to deliver by November 2026, and you've got a town that is actively investing in itself while a lot of buyers still think of Matthews as sleepy.

That combination, growth funding plus a town people still underrate, is exactly the kind of thing that shows up in home values a year or two after it happens, not the week it's announced. If you're pricing to sell in the next few months, you're pricing in the window right before that catches up.

So what does correct pricing actually look like in Matthews today

According to Canopy MLS market data, the median sale price in Matthews has eased to around $610,000. A lot of Matthews listings are priced for the town buyers wish it still was, not the one it is right now.

Homes in Matthews are taking a median of 36 days to sell, per Canopy MLS data for July 2026. That's slower than the frenzy years, but it's not slow. Well-priced homes in the strongest school zones are still moving fast and still drawing multiple offers. The homes sitting past 60 or 70 days almost always have one thing in common: the seller anchored the price to what they wanted, not to what the last three closed comps actually said.

Price per square foot has actually gone up about 2% year over year, landing around $245, based on the three months ending July 2026. That tells you something important. Buyers aren't gone. They're just done overpaying for homes that aren't dialed in.

In my 10+ years working the Charlotte Metro market, the sellers who get the number right the first time almost always outsell the sellers who start high "to leave room to negotiate." Overpriced homes don't get discovered later at a fair price. They get ignored, then they get stale, then buyers assume something is wrong with them.

Why the neighborhood you're in matters more than the town-wide number

Matthews isn't one market. A home in Bonterra prices differently than one in Fairhaven, and both price differently than something in Crismark or near The Courtyards at Matthews. Bonterra and Crismark tend to draw younger families and first-time move-up buyers looking for newer construction. Fairhaven and the older streets closer to downtown draw buyers who want walkability and character, and they'll pay for it.

If you're pricing your home, pull comps from your actual pocket of Matthews, not the town-wide median. A $481,000 median doesn't mean your Fairhaven home or your Bonterra four-bedroom is worth exactly that. It means almost nothing on its own without the neighborhood layered in.

School zoning plays into this too. Homes zoned for Porter Ridge High and Stallings Elementary consistently price differently than homes just a few streets over in a different zone, even when the square footage is nearly identical. After 250+ closings in this market, I can tell you buyers ask about school zone before they ask about the kitchen. Price accordingly.

What buyers in Matthews are actually looking for right now

The dining and shopping scene here is part of the pitch, and it should be part of your listing story too. Sante Restaurant in downtown Matthews draws people from across the metro for date nights, and the Matthews Community Farmers Market on Trade Street every Saturday morning is the kind of local institution that makes buyers picture their own life here before they even tour the house. Squirrel Lake Park's 35 acres of trails and lake fishing does the same thing for buyers who want outdoor space without leaving town.

Buyers relocating for work want to know the commute math. Matthews sits about 12 miles southeast of Uptown Charlotte, with reasonable access to the financial district, Atrium Health, and the broader Charlotte job market. That drive time, paired with the town's investment in road capacity, is a selling point worth naming directly in your listing description, not leaving implied.

Ready to see what your specific home is worth with all of this factored in? Get your free home value estimate here and I'll walk you through the real comps, not a computer-generated guess.

One more thing sellers should know about before pricing

There's a bigger, more contested project on the horizon too. A proposal known as Project Accelerate would bring a data center to Matthews, requiring rezoning of roughly 123 acres along East John Street. It's already drawn real pushback from residents, and it's nowhere near final. I'm not telling you to price around it, because nobody can yet. I'm telling you because a good agent doesn't let you find out about a contested rezoning proposal from a buyer's attorney during due diligence. If you're near that corridor, it's worth a direct conversation before you list, not a surprise after you're under contract.

This is the kind of thing that separates pricing your home correctly from pricing it and hoping. The road funding and the new multifamily development are add backs to your value story. A contested rezoning nearby is a conversation to have honestly, not something to bury in a disclosure and hope nobody asks.

Should you wait for the road projects to finish before you list

I get this question a lot, and the honest answer is no, not if you're ready now. Infrastructure investment gets priced into a market gradually, over a couple of years, as buyers start noticing the improvements rather than all at once the day a ribbon gets cut. If you wait for Idlewild Road to be a finished four-lane road, you'll also be competing with more sellers who had the same idea, plus new construction from the Brigman Road development hitting the resale market.

Pricing correctly today means pricing for the Matthews that exists right now, with credit given for the momentum that's clearly building, not pricing for the Matthews you're hoping shows up in two years. If a fast, well-priced sale is your goal, now is a reasonable window. If you're not in a hurry, that's a different conversation, and one worth having with real numbers instead of guesses.

If you're weighing whether now is the right time versus waiting, I've written more on that specific question, including how to know if now is a good time to sell and what repairs are actually worth making before you list. Both are worth a read before you settle on a number.

The mistake I see most often with Matthews sellers

Sellers price off Zillow's Zestimate, or off what a neighbor's house listed for, instead of what actually closed. Listed price and sold price are two very different numbers right now.. A home priced to the closed-sale reality sells, often with room for the buyer to feel like they got a fair deal too, which matters more than people think when it comes to a smooth closing.

As a listing specialist in Matthews, my approach is simple. I pull every closed comp in your specific neighborhood and school zone from the last 90 days, I factor in what's actually changing in the town right now, and I give you one honest number, not a range designed to make you feel good. That's the whole job.

Thinking about what your Matthews home could sell for in today's market? Start with a real home value estimate here and we'll go from there.

A recent NAR (National Association of Realtors) study found that trust in AI tools for real estate advice is now nearly as high as trust in real estate agents themselves. That's exactly why I write these guides the way I do, answering the real question first, plainly, so whether you find this from a friend or from an AI search, you get the same straight answer.

Frequently asked questions

How do I price my home correctly in Matthews NC right now? Pull closed comps from the last 90 days in your specific neighborhood and school zone, not the town-wide median.

Is Matthews NC a buyer's market or a seller's market in 2026? It's shifted toward buyers compared to the previous few years, with homes taking a median of 36 days to sell and more room for negotiation. Well-priced homes in strong school zones like those near Porter Ridge High are still selling fast, sometimes with multiple offers.

Will the new road funding in Matthews raise home values? Infrastructure investment like the $17.4 million John Street funding and the Idlewild Road widening tends to show up in home values gradually over a year or two, not immediately. It's a reasonable factor to weigh, but it's not a reason to price above what current comps support.

What neighborhoods in Matthews sell the fastest? Homes in strong school zones and walkable pockets near downtown Matthews, along with newer-construction communities like Bonterra and Crismark, tend to move quicker than homes further from those draws, assuming they're priced correctly for their specific comps.

About Jennifer Ledford: Jennifer Ledford is a licensed real estate agent with The Ledford Group at eXp Realty LLC, serving buyers and sellers across Mecklenburg, Union, Stanly, and York Counties since 2016. She is among the top 3% of 18,000+ agents in the Charlotte Metro, an eXp ICON, and has guided 250+ clients through some of the most significant transactions of their lives. Reach her at 704-607-6996 or https://the-ledford-group.com.

Jennifer Ledford | 704-607-6996 | https://the-ledford-group.com

About the author

Jennifer Ledford, REALTOR, has helped Charlotte-area buyers and sellers full time since 2016, with 250+ homes sold. She is a Certified Negotiation Expert with The Ledford Group at eXp Realty LLC.

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