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Allen & Allen, Incorporated
www.CarolinaAirparks.com
In
2004, Bruce came across a unique airpark home the
owner agents couldn’t sell. The property had
lingered on the market for over three years with
multiple real estate firms. Bruce simply said, “I
can sell this house.”
That night, he went home
and built our first website—NC-Airparks.com. He
found a buyer, sold the house, and sparked a wave of
interest that launched our journey.
From there, we began
researching every airstrip in North Carolina,
building a comprehensive database while learning how
to protect residential aviator buyers from risks not
covered in traditional real estate training.
Our commitment led to collaboration with developers
and even the NC DOT Department of Aviation, sharing
insights they hadn’t uncovered.
Despite Bruce’s 2007
brain tumor diagnosis, our business flourished—but
after his passing in 2008, the aviation market
collapsed nationwide due to the recession in that same year.
Economic struggles stalled aviator's dream of
‘living with their planes’ for years.
Following Bruce's death, I found
solace in studying airpark communities in the
Carolinas, collecting information about each airpark
subdivision (down to details about each lot in every
airpark community), and updating and redesigning our
website calling it CarolinaAirparks.com because we
now covered all of South Carolina, too.
During those years I also had the
privilege to work at the NCDOT Department
of Aviation booth at Sun n Fun in Lakeland, FL, and
at AirVentures in Oshkosh Wisconsin where I met aviators
from all over the world.
Spring 2015 brought renewed interest in aviation
real estate, and website traffic surged. At first,
buyers weren’t interested in airpark lots—but the
market quickly flooded with hangar home listings and
cautious buyers. By summer 2016, interest turned
serious. Buyers wanted modestly priced hangar homes,
not empty lots. Prices began to climb, and buyers
grew more discerning.
Today, most aviator
buyers still prefer existing homes with hangars. As
of late 2023, North Carolina had no hangar homes for
sale, and South Carolina had only one. Since then,
most hangar homes that hit the market sell quickly.
Prices for airpark properties have more than
doubled since 2012, with some years seeing jumps of
up to 40%. Demand continues to outpace supply, and
hangar space at most airports is virtually
nonexistent—leading to the byline we stand by: “The
best way to get a hangar is to buy a house with
one.”
To reach the buyers
aviation communities truly need, we continue to
advertise extensively in major aviation outlets.
And for sellers? Proper
exposure matters. One seller lost nearly $30,000 by
avoiding the open market and selling his inherited
hangar home himself.
We’re
here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.
Whether you're buying or selling, we’d be honored to
help you navigate the journey.
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