As of this morning, there are 7,860 active listings in the sixteen-county base area of the MLS in the Raleigh real estate market. That is down from over 8,000 active listings from late September 2024 through the end of November. These stats include data from the Raleigh and Durham real estate market and the surrounding sixteen county metro market.
Seasonality has kicked in as resale sellers are taking their homes of the market during the holidays. Although we see historically that buyers still purchase homes in December. Over 2,000 homes have been sold every year in the Triangle in the month of December since 2015.
Year-to-date, there have been 31,953 homes sold in the Raleigh and Durham metro markets combined. Last year, there were 33,778 homes sold in the entire year. The final sold numbers from this year should be above last year.
The median sale price for a home in 2023 was $405,000 and year-to-date it is $410,000, 1.2% appreciation rate.
The average time on the market has increased from 18 days to 20 days. That is not substantial but that number is expected to continue to rise as inventory increases and buyers have more choices of homes to look at before making an offer.
As reported previously, many buyers are opting for new construction homes because the gap between the price of existing homes vs new homes in narrowing.
Recently, the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors hosted Dr. Jessica Lautz, an economist for the National Association of Realtors. She reported that the average household income to buy a home in Raleigh was $117,000.
Lautz also reported generational wealth is driving all cash purchases. “The bank of mom and dad is providing funds for one in ten first time home buyers to pay cash,” she said.
For those who have been waiting for the real estate market to crash or for interest rates to come down before buying a home, she had bad news; “There is no anticipation of interest rates or home prices coming down right now.” The Raleigh real estate market is not seeing any slow down or interest rates dropping significantly.
Some of the statistics Lautz provided in her presentation were eye-opening to the attendees:
- The number of first-time home buyers is at a historic low of 24% of home buyers
- Cash buyers have hit an all time high of 1/3 of all home purchases
- First-time home buyers are waiting later in life to buy
- The average first-time home buyer was 38 years old in the most recent annal data
- 17% of home buyers are purchasing “multi-generational homes” to have mom or dad, kids and grandkids all under one roof
- Only 27% of home buyers have a child under the age of 18 compared to 58% in 1985
- 16% of home buyers are factoring their pets in the location of their home
- Pets are a $147 billion business annually in the United States
What’s coming in 2025?
There are many experts predicting a wide variety of statistics for the real estate business in 2025. Looking back to 2024 predictions, those experts predicted 5% interest rates by the end of the year, 5 interest rate drops from the Fed, and 5 million homes sold.
None of those came true as the current interest rate is 6.65% as of the writing of this article. The Fed did lower rates but only twice and we are on track to sell 4.62 million homes in 2024.
For 2025, most experts agree that homes will increase in value between 2% and 4.5%, while interest rates will be between 6% and 6.75% for most of the year.
The FED will likely cut rates 3-5 times in 2025, but those rate cuts affect credit card balances, home equity lines and short-term loans rather than the 30-year or 15-year fixed rate mortgage.
If you are considering selling a home, buying a home, or investing in real estate in 2025, speak to a qualified real estate agent to start the process and receive professional guidance. Keep in mind that a home is the single largest investment most people make in their lives and you need an experienced professional to guide you.