RALEIGH – The Triangle real estate market is still hot, with the median sale price of a home up 14.7% year-to-date across the region, and up 18.4% compared to July 2020, according to the latest data from the Triangle Multiple Listing Service (TMLS).
That’s much higher than inflation overall which came in at 5.4% over the same time frame, according to Statista.
Across the Triangle, 30,467 new listings have appeared on the market, through the end of July 2021. That’s almost exactly the same amount of homes listed during that same period in 2020 (30,469) TMLS data shows.
But the real estate market of 2020 was rather different than the market in 2021.
For instance, the average days that a home spends listed as available on the open market has decreased by nearly 55% and is now 14 days on average during the first seven months of the year. In Wake County, the median home sales price has increased by 15.2% year-over-year and homes are staying on the market for 11 days.
That’s year-to-date. But in July, purchasing a home in Wake County was even more competitive, TMLS data suggests, as the median sale price rose to $407,319 and the days on market dropped to seven days.
That increase in median sale price is 20.9% compared to the median home sales price in July 2020.
Also: the fifth hottest zip code for real estate buyers in the United States is in northeast Raleigh, 27616, according to a new report from Realtor.com, which WRAL.com reported last week.
That Realtor.com study tracked two aspects of local housing markets, according to its author, chief economist Danielle Hale, which WRAL TechWire interviewed for this story.
First, the study considered market demand, which was measured by the total number of unique viewers on property that appeared on Realtor.com and a comparison to those same numbers year-over-year.
Viewers looking at property listings in the 27616 zip code increased by 284% year-over-year, the study found.
The 27616 zip code is one of the hottest real estate markets of 2021 across the nation, a new Realtor.com study found. Image: screenshot of Google Maps search result for “27616.”
The second aspect of the housing market considered was the pace of transactions, which were measured by tracking the average number of days the property was listed as available and active, before it changes to a listing of under contract.
The average home stays listed on the market for five days in the 27616 zip code, which is 10 less days than the Raleigh metro, and 32 days less than the national median, the study found.
“Over the past year, the area has seen an influx of buyers from New York and major metro areas on both coasts who are interested in seeing their dollar go further,” Hale wrote in the study.
“The strong Triangle area economy, that boasts a below-average unemployment rate and above-average incomes, is a strong supporter of housing demand,” Hale added in an interview.
Report: Movers to Raleigh are getting bigger homes for a lot less money
It’s not just 27616
Despite a recent Redfin report tracking the state of the national real estate market suggesting that homebuying demand is moderating across the nation, Triangle real estate markets aren’t just hot in the neighborhoods of 27616.
In fact, according to Hale, another Raleigh zip code meets the criteria that would place it among the “top 10” list of hottest markets tracked by the organization: 27604.
And 27513 would also appear in the rankings of the top 50 hottest markets, Hale noted, were more than one zip code per region allowed to appear in the data set.
The median sales price in July 2021 in Wake County was $407,319 and across the Triangle, was $355,000, according to the TMLS data.
Raleigh recently ranked third in the nation for housing growth, and real estate across the Triangle is in high demand, with potential to grow even more as companies like Apple, Google, Invitae, Fujifilm Diosynth, Bioagilytix Labs, and many others plan to hire thousands of new employees in the region.
The most recent data from the Triangle Multiple Listing Service (TMLS) shows that for July 2021, the average number of days on market for property in Wake County was seven days, and in the Triangle, it was nine days.
Reports: Housing prices in Triangle keep soaring; demand means fast sales
“Affordability is the name of the game in 2021 as listing prices reached record highs around the country over the past year,” the Realtor.com study by Hale reads. “The majority of zip codes on our list are substantially lower in price than the national median.”
From January 2021 through June 2021, the median sale price in Wake County was $375,530, according to TMLS data. When data from July 2021 is added to the data set, the new median price, year-to-date, is $380,000.
Higher prices coming?
And prices may continue to increase.
Nationally, Zillow economists expect home values to increase 5.2% during the period between July and October, and by 8.1% by the end of the year. The same research from Zillow predicts that average increase in value for the typical home in the United States is expected to be 20.3% higher at the end of 2021 than at the end of 2020.
The Triangle is up 14.7% year-to-date, according to the latest TMLS data.
There are three factors at play, noted Hale. The Triangle has a relatively young population that is increasing in size due to natural increases in population and in-migration gains to the region, said Hale. The result is healthy and robust housing demand in the Triangle. “Relative affordability of homes makes buying an attractive decision, and low mortgage rates enable home buyers to stretch their housing dollars further,” said Hale. “A healthy job market that offers low unemployment as well as strong salaries enables homebuyers to make large purchases with confidence.”
The Triangle is also seeing increased interest from institutional investors and technology-enabled companies like Opendoor, Offerpad, and Zillow Offers, with triple-digit growth in the Raleigh and Durham markets, WRAL TechWire reported earlier this month. That interest is driving demand, which could be leading to increasing prices, shorter time on market, or more competition among would-be buyers.
The Realtor.com study only ranked one zip code–which they determined the hottest one based on the methodology used to rank–in each market in their top 50. According to that ranking methodology, the study found that the 27217 zip code in Burlington is the 18th hottest real estate market, and that the 28213 zip code in Charlotte was the 16th hottest real estate market.
The Realtor.com study lists the 27616 area as “Brentwood,” however, the Brentwood neighborhood in Raleigh actually sits southwest of the 27616 zip code in the 27604 zip code.
