RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The price of housing in the Triangle keeps rising — for both renters and buyers.
Both one- and two-bedroom apartments in Raleigh cost more than 40 percent more in July than they did a year ago, according to one study. Another one pegs a ZIP code in Cary as one of the nation’s hottest for home sales.
One expert called the Triangle’s increasingly more expensive rental situation “a perfect storm” two months ago, and things don’t appear to have changed much since then.
But how can housing costs continue to climb in the Triangle when on a larger scale, real estate prices have begun to dip and homebuilders say the U.S. could be in for a “housing recession?”
“We often talk about the housing market nationally, but of course, within that, there are hundreds, even thousands, of smaller housing markets that are all moving at different paces,” said Hannah Jones, an economic research analyst at Realtor.com.
Jon Leckie, a data reporter for the website formerly known as Rent.com, says those falling real estate prices could actually provide relief for renters — eventually.
“Short story: If housing prices go down, I think rents are going to come down,” Leckie said. “I think rents will kind of follow housing prices with a little delay.”
That hasn’t really happened yet. At least, not around here.
The average one-bedroom apartment in Raleigh cost $1,840 in July — 42 percent more expensive than it was at this time last year. That increase is even higher — nearly 45 percent — for a two-bedroom apartment, which costs $2,058, according to Rent.
Those averages are even way up from where they were two months ago, when a one-bedroom apartment in Raleigh was $1,564 and a two-bedroom was $1,927.
The website says rents are up in every state but one — Idaho.
Raleigh is one of three municipalities that Rent calls an overlap city because of those significant hikes across all bedroom types, with another one — Greensboro — just down Interstate 40.
A closer look shows several North Carolina cities on Rent’s list.
A one-bedroom apartment in Greensboro is 74 percent more expensive than it was last year. Two-bedroom apartments also are significantly more expensive in Durham (54 percent), Fayetteville (43 percent) and Greensboro (43 percent).
The higher prices renters face could be largely because higher interest rates on home loans are turning would-be buyers into once-again renters. Those rates appear to have peaked in June.
“In the short term, all those levers the (Federal Reserve Board) dispelling is only going to make housing more expensive,” Leckie said. “Which is going to make rents more expensive. But I think things will sort of get worse before they get better.”
Realtor.com rates 27511 in Cary as one of the nation’s hottest ZIP codes. In that area — which spans the area north of U.S. 1 and U.S. 64, east of Apex and west of Interstate 40 — properties spent a median eight days on the market between January-June at a median sale price of $442,000.
The 27712 ZIP code in Durham ranked in the top 30 while another in Burlington (27217) was in the top 45.
“They’re seeing even more demand because they offer an alternative to pricey markets and they offer the opportunity for buyers to become homeowners despite rising prices everywhere right now,” Jones said.
