About Durham County, NC

There is definitely a buzz around Raleigh.

You can feel it in all aspects of the real estate market these days.

I just saw a great post from DownTown Raleigh Alliance about some additional awards the Raleigh Area has recently won:

#2 Smartest City in North Carolina – American City Business Journals – November 2011

• Cary and Durham also ranked very high
• Chapel Hill received additional recognition for the smartest communities with population less than 99,999.

#4 Best City for Technology Jobs -Forbes.com – November 2011

• Technology jobs outpaced the overall rate of unemployment
• Raleigh rated #4 for this list

#5 Top 10 Metro Areas for Growth Since the Recession – Urban Land Institute - October 2011

• In just 10 percent of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, total economic growth exceeded 10 percent since 2007.
• Raleigh North Carolina is #5 on this list

I find this news very encouraging. I am seeing an increase in Buyers and Sellers, and the good news is only helping homeowners on both sides of the transactions in Raleigh.

How about you? Have you seen an increase in activity in your area also?

The real estate news for the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill area keeps improving. Inman News, a top real estate technology blog, noted Raleigh as the #1 Real Estate Market to Watch in 2012.

Inman noted the end of the year home value appreciation as a top value with the median sales price jumping 7.3% from third quarter 2010 to third quarter 2011.

Also noted in the article was the median sales price for Raleigh-Cary metro was $224,300. This is one of the highest median sales prices around.

I am seeing increased activity with both Buyers and Sellers, and it is a breath of fresh air in the real estate market for certain.

We are very fortunate in Durham, NC to have the world-class DPAC that opened here in the Bull City November 30, 2008. Last year I wrote a blog which stated that in 2010 DPAC reached the top-10 list (number 9) of most attended performance venues in the United States. I wrote that with the schedule that we had for 2011, I was sure that ranking would rise for the upcoming year.

DPAC announced earlier this month that, in fact, the ranking did rise to number 4 in the U.S. for the 2011 attendance statistics accoring to Pollstar, a concert industry magazine. Last year, the most popular performances included "The Lion King" and "Radio City Christmas Spectacular." There were 68 sellout performances for the year.

This year the list of performers are both stellar and diverse: musicians Aretha Franklin, Diana Krall, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt, The Moody Blues, and Elvis Costello will be gracing the stage; comedians Steve Harvey and Lewis Black will be yukking it up; and the plays "Wicked" and "West Side Story" will all be adding drama to the stage this year. The rest of the shows for the upcoming year can be found on their website.

Here is to a very successful 2012, DPAC! Y'all come and see a show, ya' hear.

I saw this article this morning from Forbes Magazine and was encouraged by additional recognition of the amazing assets that Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill area offer people of all ages, in this article, specifically Young Adults.

I have personally seen an increase in activity from Young Adults in the past few months and this articles shares some of the reasons why.

Forbes Magazine - Raleigh #2 City Young Adults

2. Raleigh, N.C.

• M.S.A.: Raleigh-Cary, N.C. Average Annual Job Growth (2010-2012):
• 2% Median salary: $51,500
• Cost-of-living index (U.S. average is 100): 104.4
• Percent of pop. with college degrees: 42.2%
• 1 small business for every 49 residents
• 1 large business for every 770 residents
• Unemployment rate: 7.9%
• The college town has one of the best job growth projections of any city we assessed and the 16th best average salary for young professionals, exceeded only by markedly more expensive cities.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the Raleigh area should have been rated this high? I do, and am very pleased with the opportunities it offers to Buyers and Sellers.

We are lucky to have several venues in the Triangle to watch performing arts. One of which, the state of the art Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC), had the 4th highest theater attendance in the county!

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2012/01/11/dpac-attendance-ranks-no-4-in-country.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_triangle+%28Triangle+Business+Journal%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

Great entertainment is yet another reason why we love to live in the Triangle!