Building industry watcher website BuilderOnline.com has rated Raleigh, NC as the 6th best building market for 2009. The capital city of the Tarheel State has continued adding jobs over the last two years (2.6 percent growth in 2008); and boasts “one of the highest rates of population growth of any top metro market in the country over the last five years: nearly 5 percent annually,” according to the site.

“Though the price of a median home here, $223,400, is above the national average, it is well below other cities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The metro area has added roughly 65,000 jobs since 2005, and employment held steady last year,” it reported.

Raleigh plays host to North Carolina State University and is just minutes away from Durham (Duke University) and Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina), creating the Golden Triangle and a powerful brain trust from which government and business draw to continue growth in an affordable housing environment.

Just this past week, the city has announced being named one of three U.S. cities that are participating in Project Get Ready, according to the city’s official web site, RaleighNC.gov.

Raleigh, along with Indianapolis and Portland, Ore., will demonstrate its use of charging stations for “electric plug-in and hybrid-electric vehicles that are to be produced in significant quantities in 2010.”

Published: March 20, 2009

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Mr. Carr is an award-winning real estate broker in Northern Virginia and authored "Real Estate Investing Made Simple: a commonsense approach to building wealth." He also contributed to Donald Trump’s book, "The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received," and is an active trainer and coach of top producers in the Washington DC market. As a sought-after expert on real estate, Mr. Carr has been featured on CNN, various broadcast outlets and was the former real estate editor for The Washington Times. He accepts questions at his blog www.RealEstateOlogy.org.