Hi there, I’m Brian Pate, a real estate instructor in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina and your agent asked me to share some local real estate statistics with you. As always, if you have any questions, please contact your agent for details on how your house compares in today’s market.
Before we begin, I want to make sure everyone understands that my data is from the Triangle MLS and is focused on the 16-county core of the Triangle region including: Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Nash, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wayne and Wilson counties.
Let’s start with the most important stat: For the first time since December 2, 2022, there are over 5,000 pending listings. The lowest point was January 1, 2023 when there were only 4,118. As of today, February 6, 2023, there are 5,141, a 24.8% increase since the start of the year.
In the month of January, there were 2,498 homes sold, with an average days on market of 27 days and median days on market of 8. Remember that this stat includes new construction which is always listed at zero days on the market.
If we take out new construction, days on the market jumps to 37 days average and 21 days median.
For sellers, this means if your house has been on the market for more than a month and you don’t have a contract on it, it may be time to re-evaluate your marketing strategy with your agent.
The average sale price in January was just above $405,000. That is a decrease from a year ago of $15,000. The median sold price during that same time went from $370,000 a year ago down to $350,000 in January of 2023.
Don’t be alarmed at this number. It doesn’t mean your house has lost $20,000 in value in the last year. Consult with your Realtor to find out what your home is worth in today’s market.
For those of you that are concerned with interest rates being too high, we can expect rates to come down in the next 3 months as rates follow inflation and not the Fed rate. So even though the Fed will likely raise rates a couple more times, mortgage rates will actually come down slightly as high inflation numbers from Q1 and Q2 a year ago are replaced with this year’s numbers.
My expectation is that rates will be below 5.5% for a 30 year fixed mortgage by summer. Just remember, if you are waiting for rates in the threes again, we are not likely to see that again. The Fed learned their lesson by leaving rates so low for so long and it won’t happen again anytime soon.