Triangle Multiple Listing Service Releases June 2013 Real Estate Figures

Real Estate in the NC Triangle Showing Continued Market Strength

FOR Home BUYERS is a member of the TMLS and can show you any home listed in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Triangle area of North Carolina. This is one of the strongest home markets in the USA. Our Exclusive Buyer Only Realtors are experiencing the market tightening and a lack of homes for sale on the market. When the market is tight, it is important for you, as a home buyer, to have the best possible representation so that you will be honestly informed and have someone to negotiate who is totally working for you.

Raleigh, NC: The Triangle Multiple Listing Service (TMLS) reports the following information pertaining to the housing industry in the greater Triangle region during June, 2013. The data shown reflects information on properties located in the 16 counties of the greater Triangle Region. The percentage changes are comparisons with the prior year’s month unless otherwise noted.

Closed sales continue on an extended positive trend through June with Closed Sales up 14.9 percent over June of 2012. June was the second strongest month in closed sales with 3,062 transactions. Only May, 2013 with 3,237 transactions, was higher. Pending sales (homes under contract, but not yet closed) also exceeded last June by over 26 percent.

New Listings in the Triangle region increased over 12 percent to 3852 units for June. Total inventory levels shrank by 10.2 percent in June to 14,294 units from 15,917 units in June of 2012. The months supply of available inventory shrank by 28.3 percent leaving only a 6.4 months supply. Housing prices continued to improve in June with Median Sales Price up 1.6 percent to $202,445 and Average Sales Price is up 2.7 percent to $245,901. Days on Market decreased 16.5 percent to 95 days compared to June 2012.

The Housing Affordability Index was at 175, which is 7 percent lower than last year. This index measures housing affordability for the region. An index of 120 means the median household income was 120% of what is necessary to qualify for the median-priced home under prevailing interest rates.

Rachel Wiest, Vice President of Operations, Triangle MLS, Inc. said, “We are happy to see the housing market continue to be strong.”

“With the stronger market, some previously frustrated sellers may return to the market place to help replenish neighborhoods with new listings,” Wiest concluded.

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Raleigh is 7th Best City for Recent College Graduates

Raleigh, which seems to earn a new accolade every few days, is the seventh-best city for recent college graduates.

Using factors such as the job market, average income, affordability and percentage of young people, NerdWallet rated major cities in the U.S. and published a list of the 10 sites most appealing to new college grads.

Raleigh’s population is highly educated, with 31.9% of residents 25 and over holding a Bachelor’s degree—the third highest proportion of the nation’s 50 largest cities. Raleigh’s major industries include manufacturing, aerospace, biotechnology and green energy. Two of the top employers in the area are SAS Institute, Inc., which is headquartered in the region, and North Carolina State University.

This article from NerdWallet.com ranks Raleigh as 7th among this outstanding list of cities for college graduates. It shows the strength of the job market in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Triangle area of North Carolina. The improved job market has also improved the housing market and has created an increased demand. Sellers and builders had been holding off listing and building homes for many months, with the results being a shortage of inventory of homes for sale. The housing market is heating up, which makes this an ideal time to get into the market for a home before prices increase due to excess demand.

The top 10 cities and median incomes for recent graduates is as follows:

  1. Washington, D.C. – $60,104
  2. Seattle, Wash. – $50,578
  3. Minneapolis, Minn. – $46,525
  4. San Francisco, Calif. – $61,426
  5. Austin, Texas – $45,023
  6. Atlanta, Ga. – $50,862
  7. Raleigh, N.C. – $45,495
  8. Boston, Mass. – $52,119
  9. Denver, Colo. – $48,133
  10. Columbus, Ohio – $44,392

by Sreekar Jasthi of NerdWallet.com

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Top 6 Reasons People Move to the Raleigh, NC Area

Beyond the city’s natural beauty and convenient location, here are six more reasons to move to the Raleigh area

The following article in Livability.com highlights many of the reasons those of us who live in the Triangle Area of NC which includes Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Wake Forest, Apex and many more small communities, love this area and would not want to live anywhere else. One other reason not mentioned in this article is for the world renowned Duke and Chapel Hill Medical Centers.

This article does show the wonderful quality of life experienced by the families and the professionals who relocate to the Triangle and Raleigh, North Carolina area.

Raleigh, N.C.’s bustling state capital is known to residents as the “City of Oaks,” a name that becomes quickly apparent when you visit downtown. Oak trees line the streets and sidewalks, offering pleasant shady spots for window shopping, coffee drinking and patio dining. Traveling east of Raleigh, you’ll find North Carolina’s beautiful coastal regions, and traveling west, you’ll find the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains. Beyond the city’s natural beauty and convenient location, here are six more reasons to move to the Raleigh area.

Urban Living, Southern Flair: Folks often move to Raleigh looking for urban living with a Southern touch. The neighborhoods surrounding downtown Raleigh make it easy for residents to bike to the local farmers market, walk to a new restaurant or bar, or visit the State Capitol Building. With apartments, condos and many other housing options, the Glenwood South neighborhood is a good fit if you want all that downtown offers right at your doorstep.

Delicious Food: When it comes to good food, the Raleigh region offers many options. For example, a favorite in the Boylan Heights neighborhood is The Irregardless Cafe, a delightfully small, environmentally friendly cafe catering to diverse dietary preferences, including those who are vegan or vegetarian. It’s an excellent choice for treating someone special to an evening of exquisite food – from the drinks and meal to dessert.

First Friday: Remember to mark your calendars for the First Friday Gallery Walk in downtown Raleigh. On the first Friday of every month, local galleries, studios and museums keep their doors open late. Galleries display new artworks, artists talk about their latest creations, and you can find handcrafted gifts for family and friends.

Great Neighboring Towns: When it comes to where you live, good neighbors make a big difference. Raleigh has two neighboring cities, Durham and Chapel Hill, and they are both listed among Livability’s Top 100 Best Places to Live. In fact, Durham is even ranked among the top five best places to live.

Don’t-Miss Restaurant: Speaking of Durham, it’s worth a drive if for nothing else but to visit Piedmont, a restaurant that’s cozy and small, but big on recommendations for a true taste of North Carolina flavor. Local farm-grown ingredients are a Piedmont specialty, and its ever-changing seasonal menu means there’s always something new and delicious to try.

Educational Opportunities: Many folks move to the Raleigh region for educational opportunities. North Carolina State University is the largest four-year university in the state, and it is nationally renowned for programs in engineering, biology and agriculture. Duke University is located in Durham, and it is a prestigious private research institution known for its medical school and medical center. And of course, there’s the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, best known for its programs in business, government, law and public health.

Article by: Eric Carter of Livability.com

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Standard Pacific kicks off new Morrisville neighborhood

Standard Pacific Homes last weekend kicked off sales at its newest community in Morrisville, Birkshires at Town Hall Commons.

Located at the intersection of McCrimmon Parkway and Town Hall Circle, Standard Pacific (NYSE: SPF) is planning lots for 123 single family homes that will be priced from the mid-$200,000s.

Standard Pacific has in the past year paid $1.8 million for the first two phases of construction at Town Hall Commons, according to Wake County records.

The two-story homes will range from about 1,740 to 3,051 square feet and will have options for as many as four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Four home designs are being offered in the neighborhood, says Troy George, Raleigh president for Standard Pacific Homes.

Amanda Jones Hoyle covers commercial and residential real estate for Triangle Business Journal.

FOR HomeBUYERS’ Agents have helped many of our buyer clients purchase Standard Pacific Homes. As a large national production builder, Standard Pacific is one of the best. Their floor plans are very good and the quality of construction is above the norm for a production builder. They have a very nice selection of options as well.

When purchasing a New Construction Home, if you work directly with the onsite agent you, need to be aware that they are representing the Builder and not you. In order to protect your best interest and help you through the complicated process of building a home from the ground up call 919-878-1110 and speak with a FOR HomeBUYERS’ Exclusive Buyer Representative who can walk you through the building process and help you avoid the pitfalls you may encounter. FOR HomeBUYERS has many years of experience representing Buyers working with Builders.

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Need a job? Raleigh’s one of the top 15 cities for job seekers, study says

Raleigh 11th best city in US to find a job

Once again Raleigh graces a top list. This time the City of Oaks nabs the 11th spot on the list of best U.S. cities in which to find a job, according to a new study by WalletHub.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, rated the nation’s 60 largest markets, based on more than a dozen factors, including job openings per capita, median starting salary and average annual income.

Texas was well represented in the top 10. Fort Worth topped the list and its Lone Star State neighbors Arlington (No. 4) and Dallas (No. 5), as well as Austin (No. 6) and Houston (No. 10) also ranked high.

Charlotte, at No. 18, is the only other North Carolina city on the list.

Delving a bit further into the methodology of the ranking, WalletHub considered these three major factors: The ease of finding a job, salary & benefits and cost of living.

Those three categories were further segmented into other metrics, including the number of job openings, employment growth, the unemployment rate trend and industry variety.

“Societal mobility stands to be a major asset for job seekers as the economy improves,” WalletHub says of the study results.

Hiring is expected to increase by 27 percent this year, according to the National Association for Business Economics.

This article supports one of the strongest reasons to consider relocating to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the Triangle region of North Carolina. The job opportunities are abundant and the housing market is very affordable. To obtain further relocation information and details about the housing market, contact FOR HomeBUYERS Exclusive Buyer’s Agency. You will receive unbiased housing information about the various areas of Wake County, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill because we have no listings to bias the information we provide. As Exclusive Buyer’s Agents we have access to every home on the market through MLS and will keep only YOUR best interests in mind. Call 919-878-1110 or email staff@forhomebuyers.com to assist you with relocation and housing information.

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Triangle adds 7,700 jobs since February; 26,100 since last year

Durham, Wake, Orange and Chatham all rank in top seven counties in terms of the employment rate

Triangle area employment increased in March compared both to February and to March of last year.

Between the Durham/Chapel Hill and Raleigh/Cary statistical areas, employment here increased by 7,700 nonfarm jobs from February to March, about 1 percent, and by 26,100 compared with March of 2013, about 3 percent, according to data released Tuesday morning from the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

Nonfarm employment excludes workers in general government, including teachers, private households, nonprofit organizations and individual or corporate farms. The “nonfarm” economy makes up roughly 77 percent of the total gross domestic product, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The government calculates that figure based on a survey of employers, while it calculates the unemployment rate based on a survey of households.

As has been consistent for years, and even more pronounced since the economic recovery, urban areas like the Triangle, Triad and Charlotte have had better employment rates than rural areas. Durham, Wake, Orange and Chatham all rank in top seven counties in terms of the employment rate.

State leaders have been touting the increasing employment rates, though their measure of overall employment is only half true.

One of the major policies implemented last year was to reduce the length of time that individuals receive unemployment benefits after being laid off. This policy has had the affect of artificially reducing the unemployment rate, the figure often touted by lawmakers.

By reducing benefits, the household unemployment survey technically tallies fewer people in the labor force, even if those people haven’t actually found jobs or stopped looking for work. Reducing the officially counted labor force number, even if that number is reduced artificially because of reduced unemployment benefits, will drive the unemployment rate down – artificially in North Carolina.

Therefore, a better measure of the employment picture in North Carolina is to look at the total jobs figure, which has shown an increase of about 1.6 percent since last year.

Jason deBruyn covers Health Care, Higher Education, Nonprofits and Sports Business for Triangle Business Journal.

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Raleigh-Cary No. 5 on list of fastest-growing retirement places

The Raleigh-Cary metro is No. 5 among the fastest-growing retirement places in the U.S.

Using population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, personal finance website NerdWallet ranked the top 75 metro areas based on growth of the 65-and-over population.

The top 10 fastest-growing retirement metros are as follows:

  1. Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz.
  2. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore. and Wash.
  3. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.
  4. Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich.
  5. Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
  6. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.
  7. Tucson, Ariz.
  8. Jacksonville, Fla.
  9. Richmond, Va.
  10. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich.

For the complete list, click here.

Rebecca Troyer manages the Triangle Business Journal’s day-to-day process of delivering the daily digital content and the weekly print edition. Troyer also handles inquiries on news coverage and newspaper deadlines.

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Raleigh’s in one of nation’s 12 ‘regional powerhouses driving the U.S. economy’

Raleigh is included in one of the nation’s 12 “regional powerhouses driving the U.S. economy,” according to a report released Wednesday by The Atlantic Cities.

The dozen regions identified by the urban thinktank include “Bos-Wash,” the largest region that includes Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.; “Chi-Pitts,” the midwestern area stretching from Chicago to Pittsburgh; and “Char-lanta,” which includes the Triangle.

“Char-lanta” is described as being “home to 22 million people, takes in 45 metros, including Atlanta, Georgia; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Birmingham, Alabama,” writes Atlantic Cities co-founder Richard Florida, in the report. “With more than a trillion in economic output, its economy is bigger that South Korea’s, placing it among the world’s fifteen largest economies.”

For other interesting factoids about these mega-regions, click here.

Rebecca Troyer manages the day-to-day process of delivering the daily digital content and the weekly print edition of the Triangle Business Journal..

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Once again, new home sizes start going up in the Triangle

The urge to downsize the home seems to be subsiding.

The average size of a new home built in 2013 in the Triangle went from 2,379 square feet in 2005 to 2,526 square feet in 2013, according to a report by residential research firm Metrostudy, and it’s a trend that’s backed up by what’s happening nationally, as well.

“Remember how all the headlines just a couple of years ago were about how new homes were getting smaller, and how micro housing was going to take over and nobody would buy larger houses, while Metrostudy kept seeing the opposite,” saysJay Colvin, director of Metrostudy’s Triangle and Triad regions.

Colvin’s research shows that the average new home price in the Triangle may have dropped 9 percent to $264,570 in 2009 from $290,018 in 2008, but the average square footage from a new home dropped only 3 percent.

“It was a buyers’ market, so they negotiated price down, but bought essentially the same homes,” Colvin says.

Increasingly in recent months, he says, builders in the Triangle have seen buyers making up for lost time. Young buyers are skipping the starter home and going straight from renting an apartment into a larger, move-up type home.

Retirees are demanding more square footage, as well, even as they are downsizing. “We’ve increasingly seen move down buyers, buy larger homes,” Colvin says. He notes that at Carolina Arbors, the Del Webb active adult community in Durham, the average base floor plan is 1,828 square feet, and all four of the floor plans they offer are larger than the largest plan that Del Webb had offered at Carolina Preserve, its previous active adult community in Cary.

Economics have a lot to do with the shift to larger home sizes.  Homebuyers typically buy as much home as they can afford, which is influenced by interest rates, household income and credit scores, and affluent buyers have been more numerous in the market.

Nationally, the share of new homes with at least four bedrooms has also been on an upward trend, rising from 34 percent in 2009 to 48 percent last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

The median income of new-home buyers has climbed from $91,768 in 2005 to $107,607 in 2011, and during the same period the number of new home sales has dramatically declined, from 1.28 million to 306,000.

“There are not as many people who have the income that can qualify for a new home,” says Rose Quint, NAHB assistant vice president for survey research. In North Carolina, Colvin points out that the unemployment rate for young adults between ages 20 and 25 is more than 12 percent. “So there is a big pool of young people still in college, living with parents, and renting who are waiting for employment” and to buy a home, Colvin says. “I believe, once they do find jobs, you’ll see historical trends in life event changes resume and the Triangle will see smaller lower priced homes reemerge as influencers in market dynamics.”

Amanda Jones Hoyle covers commercial and residential real estate for the Triangle Business Journal. Follow her on Twitter @TBJrealestate

in Uncategorized 0 comments

Cary, Apex on list of America’s 10 safest suburbs

The two Wake County communities ranked No. 6 and No. 7.

Cary and Apex have landed on another top 10 list – this time as two of America’s safest suburbs.

The two Wake County communities ranked No. 6 and No. 7 among 120 communities that are suburbs of the 50 most populous U.S. cities, according to Movoto, a real estate brokerage firm that operates in 30 states.

Movoto’s rankings were based on FBI data on property crimes per capita, violent crimes per capita and the chances of being the victim of a crime.

Rebecca Troyer manages the day-to-day process of delivering the daily digital content and the weekly print edition of the Triangle Business Journal. Troyer also handles inquiries on news coverage and newspaper deadlines.

in Uncategorized 0 comments