With ten months of 2025 sales under our belt, our local real estate market continues to show steady sales volume and modest prices increases.*  Closed sales volume is a bit higher than the same period last year, a significant improvement over the earlier part of the year when we lagged last year’s results. Buyers and Sellers have adjusted to the new reality of 6-7% mortgage rates and price increases remain reasonable.

Compared to Jan-Oct 2024, prices were up a modest 2-2.5% in Cary and Raleigh markets and 4% in Durham. Sales volume was up 3.6% in Cary and flat in Durham and Raleigh.

The Chapel Hill/Carrboro market continues to be the outlier with a 9.1% growth in sales coupled with a 6.8% decrease in prices. As I said last month, some of the price decrease can be attributed to an increase in non-single family units, but also to homes that were overpriced in 2024 coming more into line and sales increasing accordingly.

For Jan-October 2025, the sales price averages were:

CARY: $704K

DURHAM: $482K

RALEIGH: $552K

CHAPEL HILL/CARRBORO: $654K 

30 year fixed rate mortgages held steady from last month at 6.38%.  This bodes well for continued steady performance through the rest of the year.

Today’s big real estate headline is that the typical new-home buyer in the US is now 40 years old, a record high and up sharply from 33 just five years ago. The soaring prices of the pandemic and the increase in mortgage rates have struck a huge blow to housing affordability nationwide. First-time Buyers accounted for just 21% of sales this year, the lowest since 1981 when mortgage rates were 16%!

In 2019, of North Carolina’s 15 metro areas, 12 were considered affordable—defined as where median-income families could afford median-priced homes. In 2025, there is only one left, Rocky Mount. One! Asheville is the least affordable and the Triangle is affordable for 65-75% of median-income families.  No wonder there are so many apartments being built…

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, football and food !

Sources: 

Triangle MLS  11/11/25

bankrate.com 11/11/25

National Assoc. of Realtors 11/5/2025

NC Dept. of Commerce 5/27/2025

* For perspective on the broader vs luxury market, property data includes sales of $2M or less