Housing sales are slow, according to local Realtors in Durham, North Carolina, where tech industry slowdowns have taken their toll, but educational and research facilities are helping to keep jobs and homes in the area more stable.

"Durham is the city of education with Duke and North Carolina Central Universities," explain Realtors Janet, Steve and Ben Foreman. "It is known as the "City of Medicine". It is also a high-tech city having many "techy" residents who work in the Research Triangle Park. Durham also has much cultural heritage. The downtown has many restored tobacco houses now being used as offices and condos. The Durham Bulls play at the new Durham Athletic Park, and downtown Durham is the center of much revitalization and restoration."

Agrees Realtor Wesley Treece, "Durham is the source of some of the most advanced healthcare research and development facilities in the United States, and a source of predominantly white-collar labor with Research Triangle Park as the major employment base.

"Durham has seen housing prices soften further as the local labor market continues experience job shortages in the high-tech and telecommunications industries," says Treece. "Homebuyers have become less impulsive as the holiday season nears, bringing with it a natural low in the annual housing market cycle. Mortgage rates continue to hover at or near record lows, however most homeowners who had been interested in refinancing have already done so. Home sales year-to-date are below last year's figures by a rate of 3.5 percent, according to statistics reported by the Triangle Multiple Listing Service.

"The likelihood of the existing buyer's market persisting into the coming new year is virtually certain," advises Treece, "although sales are more likely to pick up significantly toward the end of the first quarter in accordance with the normal buying cycle. In summary, for opportunistic sellers who can wait, the market is likely to rebound by mid-March of next year after most current prospective buyers have received their annual tax refund checks. But for buyers who have leisurely shopped the inventory of a very soft Triangle area housing market for the past 10 months, the leverage they have enjoyed to date is likely to start weakening shortly after the first of the year, when the properties for sale by move-up buyers begin to be sold with greater urgency."

Explains Realtor Rick Freeman, "Currently in the Raleigh/Durham and surrounding area, there are 22 percent more listings on the market than last year at this time and sales are just barely keeping up. The "buyer's market" continues strong especially for detached homes in the price points above $250,000. Durham county has a 20-month supply of homes over $400,000; the large amount of new construction projects, with their inability to raise prices coupled with significant builder incentives to buyers, has knocked down re-sale values. Ironically while in most areas of the Triangle there is as much as a year's supply of condo and town homes on the market, Durham County has had brisk sales in this type of house with only a four-month supply of town homes currently."

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Published: December 12, 2002

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