Portrait of a Regional Real Estate Bubble

Those of us who work as Realtors in the Triangle of North Carolina, know we have it good. There are many reasons why our area has been less damaged by the bursting of the real estate bubble than many other areas of the country.

North Carolina ranks #3 on the top move in list in 2010 according to United Van Lines Migration Study rising from #10 in 2009. It isn’t rocket science that it takes folks moving TO a city to sell homes.

Distressed properties may have accounted for 33% of home sales nationwide according to NAR but they are just 9% of the total sales in the Triangle Multiple Listing Service (TMLS) which includes the Chapel Hill / Durham / Raleigh markets. Orange County, home to Chapel Hill has around 3% of its current inventory listed as distressed. Will this rise? Probably. Are we anywhere near as bad off as California, Florida or Michigan? Not even close.

But we STILL were part of the bubble bursting. What does a bubble look like in a relatively unscathed part of the country? Take a look:

Yes, we are very lucky here. We can actually see the line beginning to return to a “normal” level. The truth is that the number of closings in the TMLS for 2010 ranked #8 when ranked out of the past 16 years. I’ll take it.

This has absolutely had an effect on the price, terms and condition which sellers are required to accept in order to get their homes sold. Lots of sellers who bought at the peak are still angry; angry that they have to accept that buyers are in control. Some who counted on the “value” of their home at the peak are also feeling like they left money on the table. But that’s the thing with a bubble. Once it bursts there are some folks caught in the deflation. But if you need to sell or just want to sell, it is still possible to do so in the Triangle and move on to take advantage of deflated prices in this and other markets.

Sellers , do yourselves a favor. Talk to a real estate agent who can share the relevant statistics for your market and neighborhood and provide you with REAL marketing options to get your home sold. While we are lucky and still getting Chapel Hill and Durham homes sold quickly, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

There is a home for every buyer these days but not yet a buyer for every home!