The Problem with the News Media Reporting on the State of the Market

The problem I see in our marketplace in the Triangle area is that more times than not, the news media is reporting on the national, rather than local, real estate news. People in our area may get the impression that we are in the same boat as the rest of the country and that our prices are going to drop to the levels of California or Florida. Many are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the bottom and will miss out on some great deals. The reason our prices will not drop like these other areas is because the Raleigh area has never been in a balloon market. Our prices were never over inflated. When other markets had crazy out of control prices, our appreciation stayed fairly consistent over a long period of time.

The reason our area has been affected is because there is such a high volume of people from all over the country that cannot sell their homes and move to North Carolina as they intended. This has caused the Raleigh area to temporarily lose buyers and have higher inventory levels. We were the last to come to this down marketplace and I understand by our local economists that they predict we will be the first to come out of it.

In the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, January 27th, the article, “Price Cuts Spur Homes Sales” said that U.S. Home sales registered their biggest monthly jump in nearly seven years in December, a rise of 6.5% from November. It also showed a map of the U.S. and the percentage decrease in home prices over the last year. The Raleigh area only registered a mere -2.5% drop in prices while other major markets such as Las Vegas (-26.8%), Miami (-23.5%), Phoenix (-22.3%) and Los Angeles (-21%) were substantially down. As you can see, the Raleigh area is considered one of the best markets in the country and has been the least affected in the down market next to Dallas (-1.8%). That says a lot about our area!

With this information, it is clear why the news media should not talk about the real estate market as a whole, implying that all of the markets in the country are the same. Our market is clearly different than these other markets in this recession. I understand that once home buyers in other parts of the country are able to sell their homes and relocate, they are picking areas with strong rebound potential.

The Raleigh/Durham area is being eyed by people who want a better quality of life, affordable housing and lower taxes. As soon as they sell their homes, they say they are off to North Carolina! In 2008 we were named as the #1 Best Place to Live in the US by MSNBC!