Triangle Real Estate & Homes For Sale | North Carolina

Triangle Foreclosure Sale

Raleigh Real Estate — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:00:45 +0000

Foreclosure sales in Durham and Raleigh for the first quarter of 2010 decreased overall from the previous quarter. According to a recent report published by RealtyTrac and publicized by The Triangle Business Journal. Foreclosure sales in the Triangle area were down by 6% from the previous quarter. What this report is tracking is sales of home during the first quarter of 2010 that were in some phase of the foreclosure process. Another interesting element of this report circles around discounts to buyers. According to the report buyers of REOs (Real Estate Owned by the bank) were given the steepest discounts off fair market value. In the Triangle area the biggest discounts were realized in Durham. You can read the Business Journal article by clicking here. If you’d like more information about purchasing foreclosure properties please give us a call.

Wake County City Links

Raleigh Real Estate — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:50:59 +0000

Wake County is one of several counties in the Triangle. There are nine cities and towns that make up Wake County. Below are links to each of these cities and towns. Each has laws and regulations that are unique to their municipality. These link should prove helpful to you in doing your due diligence when buying a house.

Cities and Towns
Apex, NC – Apex
Cary, NC – Town of Cary
Garner, NC – Garner
Knightdale, NC – Knightdale
Morrisville, NC – Morrisville
Raleigh, NC – City of Raleigh site
Wake Forest, NC – Wake Forest
Wendell, NC – Wendell
Zebulon, NC – Zebulon

Raleigh Living equals The Best Quality of Life

Raleigh Real Estate — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:22:28 +0000

If you’re thinking about relocating? If you’re looking for the best quality of life in a major metro area? Relocating to Raleigh, NC is a great option. In a study recently released by Portfolio.com; Raleigh, NC beat out 66 other major metro areas to take top billing for best overall quality of life.

Follow this link to an interactive chart of data from the study.

You can also click here to read The Triangle Business Journal’s (TBJ) write up of the report.

The study measured 20 statistical areas. According to the TBJ top billing was given to “well-rounded markets with healthy economies, moderate costs of living, light traffic, impressive housing stocks and high-powered educational systems.” Some of Raleigh’s most impressive stats include.

-Fast paced growth; Raleigh has grown by 37% since 2000.
-Supply of new houses; over 50% of Raleigh’s housing stock has been built since 1990.
-Supply of high profile jobs; 44% of Raleigh workers hold management positions.
-Well educated work force; 41% of the population holds a bachelor’s degree.

If you are thinking about making a move to the Triangle? Let us help make your experience as smooth as possible. If you’re looking for a place to invest in Real Estate the Triangle is ripe with opportunity. Contact us today and we’ll help get you moving in the right direction.

Raleigh: Tops for Young Professionals

Raleigh Real Estate — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:29:56 +0000

A new study ranks Raleigh as the third best metropolitan area in the country for young adults seeking to establish themselves in a recessionary economy. According to the Triangle Business Journal Raleigh achieved its top billing for having both high population growth and employment growth. While maintaining relatively low unemployment.

If you are thinking about moving to Raleigh to take advantage of our growing economy give me a call so I can help you get acclimated to the area.

To read the entire article and see who ranked in the top two spots you can click here.

Raleigh Real Estate – Raleigh Listings and Trends

Raleigh Real Estate — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:05:31 +0000

The real estate market at it most basic and rudimentary level can be understood through basic Economics. Real estate values are driven by supply and demand. If supply increases and demand does not increase in kind housing values drop. This is know as a buyers market. While if the opposite is true and demand increases without supply keeping pace prices increase. Here we have a sellers market. This is of course just the starting point. There are innumerable reason that can cause both supply and demand to ebb and flow. This being the case an important aspect of the real estate business is listing trends. An easy way for brokers to gage where the market is heading is to track listings in terms of months supply on the market at any given time. At the point of writing this Raleigh listings are currently hovering around nine month supply. This is a rough figure hewn together from numerous price categories. If you are interested to see what the competition looks like at your homes price point please contact me. I’d be happy to prepare a comparative market analysis for your specific situation. Or if you want to search for Raleigh homes for sale just click here.

Raleigh Real Estate – MLS NC

Raleigh Real Estate — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:33:56 +0000

There aren’t too many people who haven’t heard of a Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The most sought after function of the MLS is searching homes listed for sale. However, I’d bet most folks aren’t exactly sure how the MLS works or what other functions the MLS serves. In a nut shell the MLS is a suite of services that (1) enables brokers to establish contractual offers of compensation (among brokers); (2) facilitates cooperation with other broker participants; (3) accumulates and disseminates information to enable appraisals; (4) is a facility for the orderly correlation and dissemination of listing information to better serve broker’s clients, customers and the public. A multiple listing service’s database and software is used by real estate brokers representing sellers under a listing contract to widely share information about properties with other brokers who may represent potential buyers or wish to cooperate with a seller’s broker in finding a buyer for the property or asset.
A question people often have is regarding what areas are contained in a specific MLS system. Is there a North Carolina MLS (an MLS NC)? Actually there are several MLS systems in NC. Raleigh homes for sale are listed in the Triangle MLS. The Triangle MLS contains listings for several counties (the major ones being Durham, Orange & Wake).
Before the MLS was computerized it was held in several yellow pages sized books. These books were regularly updated but widely invisible to the public. The MLS as we know it today facilities immediate dissemination of real estate sales information. It is not unheard of for a home to sell within hours of a real estate sales agent entering the information into the computer. If you like to search for Raleigh NC listings just click here.

Job Growth Good for Durham Real Estate

Raleigh Real Estate — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:24:09 +0000

The Triangle Business Journal (TBJ) reported today that the biotech company, Syngenta, has announced plans to expand it’s facility in the Research Triangle Park (RTP). The expansion plans, as reported in the TBJ, include leasing an additional 100,000 sqft of office space and plans to purchase 50 acres within RTP. Syngenta is a biotech company that specializes in various aspects of agricultural research. They currently employ some 400 people in The Triangle and speculation is that their expansion will add to the Durham job base.

As I’ve said before The Triangle is slated for major population growth over the next 20 years. Some analyst estimate as much as 70% growth. A major reason for this growth is the job market. A good job market and population growth are major contributors to a healthy real estate market. As the population swells in The Triangle so too will real estate values; it’s simple supply and demand. I’d be shocked if twenty years from now people aren’t looking back and saying man if only I’d invested in that house or land when I had the chance.

There are a lot of Triangle neighborhoods!

Raleigh Real Estate — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:16:28 +0000

I’m not sure where you are moving from or how people there tend to organize housing developments. In the triangle the neighborhood is king. When surfing Triangle area websites you’ll undoubtedly come across lists of neighborhoods with descriptions trying to delineate one from the next (we do some of that here too). Funny thing is, lots of these neighborhoods meld into each. So knowing definitively where one stops and another starts can be tricky business. This is not always the case; there are lots of neighborhoods (subdivisions) with well defined borders. When looking for a new home in The Triangle it would be best not to get too caught up in owning a house in a specific neighborhood; just for neighborhoods sake. I understand there will be people who simply must live in a certain neighborhood because of its historic quality or the status living there garners. In my opinion when you are choosing a new house you ought to consider what amenities are a must have and which are negotiable. Odds are that several neighborhoods in an area will provide you with equal access to the things your family can’t live without.

Triangle Real Estate and the 5% rule

Raleigh Real Estate — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:23:59 +0000

Real Trends is a real estate trade publication published on a monthly basis. In the November 2009 issue they reported a survey they deemed the 5% rule. The survey was conducted through their own independent research with supplemental data coming from research university giants. Simply put, the “5% rule” says that in a normal year 5% of American house holds will purchase a home. According to their findings this has been the trend for the past 30 years and is the anticipated estimation for 2010. Through some technical growth calculation Real Trends further reports that the number households in the US increase by 1.1% each year. With these two statistics they can further project anticipated housing sales out into the future. They expect that it will take till 2024 for home sales to again reach 2005 levels. In this projection I wasn’t quite sure what they meant by “home sales.” I’m guessing they meant housing prices. I sent them an email for clarification and I’ll let you know what they come back with.

Let me bring this home to the Triangle. During the crazy real estate speculation The Triangle, luckily, didn’t get caught in the housing price inflation. There were for sure people that got mortgages who probably shouldn’t have. Also, the temptation to refinance grabbed another group of people. While the price bubble didn’t strike The Triangle, no one has been immune to the recession it caused. All these scenarios are currently being played out in the Triangle foreclosure and short sale market. However, short sales and foreclosures make up a small slice of the total real estate market; about 5% in Raleigh. Compare this to a city like Phoenix where nearly 80% of the homes for sale are either a short sale or a foreclosure and you get a good idea of The Triangle’s real estate health. The Triangle is an area poised for explosive growth over the next 20 years. People who get in now on this real estate market should continue to see the healthy 3-4% appreciation historically experienced in the region.

Home Buying Tip… No one buys a house at the bottom of their price range

Raleigh Real Estate — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:09:50 +0000

I see it all the time. I’ll be going through an initial consultation with new buyers. They are of course very excited and I’m excited for them. At some point the conversation will bend to how much they are willing to spend on their new place. The couple will say, “Well, we’ve been approved up to $300,000, but we really only want to send $220,000. I say okay and customize a search to meet their criteria. A few days go by we go out hunting. We look at a couple places and I can tell something is up. They’ve been doing their own side hunting –and who can blame them. The internet makes it so easy. First you start looking at the homes that are $220,000. Then you get curious, ‘What does a house for $250,000 look like? We’re approved up to $300,000. No harm in looking.’ Honestly, there is no real harm, but once you’ve opened that door it’s hard to look back. The house that is $220 will not hold a candle to the one that is $300; it can’t. And in my experience only the incredibly strong willed are able to come back down that golden staircase. I want my customers to be happy, and that is the heart of the question. What is going to make them happier; a $300,000 home or a more affordable monthly payment? If it’s not a stretch to make the $300,000 mortgage payment go for it! But if that payment is going to be too big a burden, the house will also quickly turn into a burden.

Here is my advice to you the home buyer.

1. Before you go to talk to a lender sit down and figure out a budget.

2. When you go to talk to your lender come in with your monthly payment firmly set. This monthly payment will translate into the total purchase price of your new house.

2. Don’t even bother to learn your outer barrier. Use the monthly payment as your outer barrier.

3. Don’t look at houses above your price range. Sure you may qualify for the loan amount but you want to enjoy your new place not resent the monthly payments.