Wake County real estate: 3 records smashed in December

RALEIGH – The median price of all homes sold in Wake County in December 2021 was $411,000, an all-time high, according to the latest data from the Wake County Register of Deeds released Tuesday afternoon.

That figure is $82,250 higher than the median price of $328,750 in January 2021, according to the Register of Deeds.

That’s not the only real estate transaction record either.

According to the Wake County Register of Deeds, the total sales volume of the 21 Wake County properties that sold for more than $30 million, known as the “very high quality segment,” was $1.3 billion, beating the previous record of July 2021, when 12 transactions totaling nearly $1 billion took place.

But that’s not all.

Another new record was also set in the “high quality segment” of the real estate market, which includes properties that have sold for over $1 million and under $30 million, according to the Register of Deeds. There were 250 transactions totaling over $991 million in this market segment, according to the Register of Deeds report, setting the record.

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What record deals are there?

According to the Wake County Register of Deeds, each transaction in the “very high value segment” is listed below:

1. Triangle Factory Shops Mall 1001 Airport Blvd, Morrisville, NC: $181 million
2. Hudson High House Apartments, Cary, NC: $93 million
3. Wal-Mart Store and Lot 13 Shiloh Crossing, Morrisville, NC: $88 million
4. The Riley Apartments, Raleigh, NC: $84 million
5. Braxton at Brier Creek Apartments, Raleigh, NC: $79 million
6. The Waterford Apartments, Morrisville, NC: $76 million
7. Foxwood Luxury Apartments – Bldg 1, Raleigh, NC: $73 million
8. Beaver Creek Crossings Mall, Apex, NC: $70.5 million
9. 6401 Triangle Plantation Dr. (Mall), Raleigh, NC: $58 million
10. Regency Woods II Office Building, Cary, NC: $53 million
11. Concord Apartments, Raleigh, NC: $53 million
12. Capital Creek at Heritage Apartments, Wake Forest, NC: $52 million
13. Foxwood Luxury Apartments – Phase 2 Bldg 9, Raleigh, NC: $52 million
14. Brentmoor Apartments, Raleigh, NC: $52 million
15. Palisades Business Park, Raleigh, NC: $48 million
16. 52 North (formerly One North Commerce Center), Raleigh, NC: $44 million
17. Brier Creek Corporate Center – Parcel J., Raleigh, NC: $39 million
18. Oxford University Press – 0 Evans Rd & 2001 Evans Rd, Cary, NC: $38 million
19. 604 Airport Blvd, Morrisville, NC: $36 million
20. 3100 & 3128 Smoketree Ct, Raleigh, NC: $35.5 million
21. Carolina Place (office building), Raleigh, NC: $32.5 million

So what’s happening right now?

First, residential property appears to remain in strong demand, while inventory (or the availability of new homes or existing homes for sale) remains near all-time lows and the median selling price of homes sold continues to rise across the region.

Several real estate agents told WRAL TechWire in interviews conducted in 2021 that the Triangle is experiencing an extreme seller’s market as buyers face competition. And a Zillow forecast predicts that real estate values ​​in the region could continue to rise, forecasting a nearly 24% increase in real estate values ​​through November 2021 and November for the Raleigh metropolitan area, which includes Wake County, Johnston County and Franklin County 2022, enough to place the region third on the real estate company’s list of hottest markets for 2022.

Second, investors want to deploy a record amount of capital. This trend has been observed in the venture capital world, with investments in US-based venture capital-backed startups nearly doubling in 2021 from the previous record set in 2020.

Investors are also interested in real estate, noted Highwoods Properties COO Brian Leary earlier this month in an interview with WRAL TechWire.

And Raleigh and the Triangle are getting “tons” of interest, Leary said.

“What’s happening is that in previous recessions over the past 100 years, investment activity has typically retreated to the gateway markets,” Leary said. That includes markets like New York, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Chicago, according to a recent research paper by Joseph Pagliari Jr., Ph.D., a clinical professor of real estate at the University of Chicago, on the Leary referred to in conversation with WRAL TechWire.

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“This recession is completely different,” Leary said. “All investment dollars withdrew from the gateway markets.”

Instead, investors experienced the events of 2020 differently, and one result is that investors began seeking investments in markets beyond those traditionally considered “recession-proof,” Leary said.

“When you start thinking about an investor, in what’s called a balanced portfolio, an investor wants to spread their money out,” Leary said. It turns out that investors were beginning to understand that other regions of the country might represent less risky, and therefore potentially better, investments.

“Rents are much lower here,” said Leary of the Triangle area, although he noted that he and investors are aware that median rents are rising.

“Investors want growth,” Leary said. “And investors don’t want risk,” he added. “Those secondary and tertiary markets actually have lower risk.”

This prompts investors to purchase properties in the triangle. The region’s life sciences growth is strong and attracting investment. So is population and job growth in the region, which is attracting investment in commercial multi-family housing, Leary said.

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“We’re a very fast growing high-tech region and if you compare us to competitive high-tech regions across the country including Seattle, Denver, Austin, Boston,” said Sig Hutchison, chairman of Wake’s Board of Commissioners County , speaking to WRAL TechWire in December. “Our prices are still affordable and that’s what drives so many companies to come here and it helps drive real estate prices up.”

That potentially creates a housing affordability crisis, Hutchison added. A Wake County statement released in December found that 25% of Wake County residents have difficulty finding and affording housing in the county. An infographic from the North Carolina Housing Coalition puts that figure at 26%, noting that 17% of owner households are struggling to afford the cost of housing, but 42% of renter households are cost-burdened, meaning this is 30% or more of household income are spent on rent and utilities.

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