RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The real estate markets in Durham and Cary are sizzling, even more so than the rest of the Triangle, finds a new study from WalletHub.

How hot? Durham ranked 7th in the nation, and Cary ranked 12th. Raleigh ranked 48th, and Charlotte ranked 51st.

The WalletHub analysis ranked the top 300 most populous cities across two key dimensions, the city’s real estate market, which factors 80% of a city’s ranking, and the region’s affordability and economic environment, which factors 20% of a city’s ranking.

To establish the top cities, a weighted average was calculated, using a 100-point scale, where 100 would be the rating of the strongest housing market, the authors say.

Durham scored 68.89, placing it 7th overall and 4th best among mid-sized markets, and Cary scored 67.26, placing it 12th overall and 7th best among mid-sized markets.

Raleigh scored 61.65, placing it 48th, and 9th best among large-sized markets.

Durham ranked highly in part due to its performance along two of the measures analyzed by WalletHub:

  • a short average days on market, where the market ranked third overall
  • lower home maintenance costs as a percentage of income, where the market ranked first.

In the Triangle, there’s no sign of slowing demand.  The Triangle real estate market overall is competitive: as of the end of July, the median sale price is now up 14.7% year-to-date and up 18.4% compared to median sale price at the end of July 2020.

Triangle real estate stays hot: Prices surge 18% – more than triple inflation rate

Demand doesn’t appear to be slowing, and the market may continue to see price increases in the months to come. According to a recent study from DeedClaim, there’s a housing shortage in the Triangle, and the shortage is among the most severe in the nation.

That study found that Raleigh and Durham are among the top 20 cities in the nation currently experiencing a housing shortage, with Raleigh ranking 5th and Durham ranking 16th. Fayetteville ranks 8th.

The study measured the lowest amount of available housing as compared to demand, based on data from Realtor.com, factoring in active listings, and weighting for population growth anticipated over the course of the year.

Realtor.com released its own report earlier this month found that the Raleigh-area zip code of 27616 was among the most in-demand zip codes in the nation, ranking 5th in the nation. Raleigh was also ranked among the top 3 markets where inventory has fallen the most, compared to the prior year, according to a study released earlier this month by Redfin, which WRAL News reported earlier this month.