Durham home prices rise; Raleigh's slip

Triangle Business Journal
November 10, 2009

The Durham metropolitan area, bucking the national trend, posted higher home sale prices during the third quarter. The Raleigh-Cary area wasn’t so fortunate.

Durham’s median home sale price rose 3.6 percent year over year in the third quarter, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors.

The median existing single-family home price in Durham was $184,300.

The median existing single-family home sales price in the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area dipped 6.3 percent to $207,900 in the third quarter, according to the survey.

Nationally, existing home prices dropped 11.2 percent to $177,900. The median is the value at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

NAR reported an 11 percent increase in the number of home sales nationally from the second quarter. Year over year, the number of sales was up more than 5 percent. The NAR report did not provide the number of sales on a local level.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun attributes the increase in sales and the moderation of home prices to the federal tax credit program for first-time home buyers. “It’s given buyers the confidence they needed to get off the fence and take advantage of extremely affordable housing conditions,” Yun said in a statement.

During the third quarter, 123 out of 153 metropolitan statistical areas reported lower median existing single-family home prices in comparison with the third quarter of 2008, while 30 areas had price gains.