Real Estate Market Reports & Data

Mid Year Real Estate Review:

The numbers are in and I've been busy crunching them (along with the carrots from our garden) and overall I have to say that things look better for the first half of 2012 then they did for the same time period in 2011. Here's a quick overview with the areas I regularly work in broken out individually.

Orange County Real Estate Report

At the end of June we were sitting on roughly 9 months of inventory for sale down from over a years worth of inventory form the same time last year. Overall TTD sales were up by 7.8% in Orange County, however the average sales price was down by 5.2% to $321,258. In total $204,000,000 worth of residential real estate transactions closed in the first 6 months of the year.

When I look at

Single-family housing starts slipped by a minuscule amount in October, just the second month of eight for which starts fell. The new construction housing market continues to show strength, which lends credence to a strong 2013 housing market forecast.

The Housing Market Is Recovering Well From 2011.

What does that mean for folks here in the Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary real estate market? When you look at our Real Estate Market for December of 2012 compared to December of 2011 - you see just how positive this is!

• The number of sold homes in the Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh Market area has increased by 33%
• Homes in parts of Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary are selling for more money (Orig list price received is up over 2%)
• The number of Days

First there was Zillow and their Zestimate, now we have Trulia offering their own online free estimate and I won't be surprised if before long before Realtor.com starts offering the same.

The public sees these “valuations” and many get confused and occasionally angry at these valuations failing to understand that this purported “data” is about as worthwhile as the answers you get from a childhood toy of mine (that's still being sold today) the Magic 8 Ball. For those of you who don't remember this toy it's a plastic 8 Ball with a small window in it. Inside it's filled with a liquid (I suppose it's water) and there's a die with pre-printed answers on it. You ask the 8 Ball a question, give it a shake and then look in the window for your answer. It's

As leader of the NC Homes real estate team, it's critical that I know not only have a detailed understanding and knowledge of the local real estate market, but also monitor the general economic trends affecting the local economy of Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh, collectively referred to as “the Triangle or the Research Triangle.” to that end I'm constantly scouring a variety of industry specific sources.

Today I read over the Wells Fargo North Carolina Economic Outlook commentary produced by Mark Vitner (Senior Economist at Wells Fargo) and his staff. As might be expected they have a number of concerns for the State predominately concerning the Global economy and the upcoming challenges surrounding the resolution of our own homegrown “fiscal cliff.”

Finally - Economist are becoming believers! With the recent reports from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), it is now crystal clear that home building is a leading source of economic growth for 2012. In fact, all of the reports from the Homebuilder Association, the National Association of REALTORS, The Federal Housing and Finance Agency support the fact that the National Economy is improving, and as it improves, the National housing market is recovering too!

What Changed In The North Carolina Real Estate Market

As the overall economy slowed, housing generated a large share of the expansion. Home building and remodeling (residential) added 0.33 percentage points to the final tally of GDP growth, or 17% of the total. Those are numbers that can't

This morning I received an email from another Realtor asking me what I knew about the upcoming 2013; 3.8% Federal sales tax on real estate sales. My guess is that they or one of their clients received either an email or mail flier warning of dire consequences to homeowners who might be selling their home in the future.

I've seen this a version email and honestly found it insulting to my intelligence as well as poorly written, false in it's assertions and essentially more of the usual Tea Party/ Republican sponsored nonsense designed to frighten people in advance of the upcoming election. I believe that that everyone is entitled to vote from whomever they wish, whether I agree with them or no. That's part of living in a democracy, however I'm not in

Today on Good Morning America, Zillow.com was referenced for a recent report they released where they analyzed the data in over 200 US metro areas and 7,500 cities to determine the actual time frame it would take to come out ahead if buying rather than renting. Unlike most analysis which typically only looked at price to rent when considering buying versus renting; Zillow new report factors in data such as taxes, tax deductions, down payments, utilities, appreciation/depreciation, maintenance, opportunity expenses and fluctuations in the rental market. These type of calculations would very extremely difficult for most people to accurately calculate with a high degree of accuracy (including even someone like myself) for a couple of reason, the most

Three weeks ago I published a blog titled 2012- Buy a Home or Keep on Renting- What's your Plan? Since then I've heard from some people saying that they enjoyed the article but wished I had a quick spreadsheet they could see summarizing the numbers I presented as this is how they grasped numbers best. So I took a little time and put one together which I present here.

Just a couple of days ago I was on my way to show a home to some buyer clients and was listing to NPR and heard a conversation about how the combination of historic low-interest rates combined with home prices being down anywhere from 10%-40% from their record highs just 5 years or so ago really made this the ideal home for home buyers. The problem the speaker was saying was that

Current Durham Market Statistics - October 2011

I'm sitting in my office now reviewing the latest market data from a variety of sources, including the raw local data my local MLS, Board of Realtors, Zillow, Trulia and others generate.

This is what I do regularly throughout each year, so that I can help my buyers and sellers get the information they need to make good, informed decisions.

Overall the market picture is mixed. While I’ve had an extremely good year, closing on average more than 3 transactions a month, I realize this is not at all indicative of the broader market. Studying all the data there are a few things that really stand out to me.

Low Housing Stock

First and most important is the overall drop in inventory on the market.

I was sitting at a home inspection in Chapel Hill, NC; for an out-of-state Buyer client a few days ago and was pondering the old maxim: Knowledge is Power.

Modern Misinformation In The Real Estate Industry

In today's Internet driven, 24/7 news cycle world; if there's one thing we don't lack it's the availability of information. I don't know about you, but there are times I feel like I'm being inundated with information to the point where my head figuratively feels as if it's exploding. If knowledge is indeed power, than why do I often find myself feeling this way? I believe the reason is that we so often confuse information for knowledge.

Perhaps this is why so many people struggle with making well-informed decisions regarding real estate, their