Durham housing market: not as soft as we might think?

There's no question that housing prices have everyone's attention at a national level. And given the latest Case-Schiller index numbers -- which found continued price declines in almost every major national market -- it's hard to be too bullish on the state of the housing market nationally.

But can we be bullish on the Bull City? There's mixed signals in the marketplace, but at least one local Realtor found the following intriguing data last week out of the Triangle Multiple Listing Service. How is the sales volume, at least, matching up with the conventional wisdom that it typically takes six months to sell a house in Durham?

In Durham County as of about an hour ago, 2,260 homer were listed for sale in the Triangle Multiple Listing Service [MLS]. By comparison, 394 homes were sold in Durham County during May 2008. 2,260 divided by 394 tells us that it would take 5.7 months to sell through the current inventory. The Durham housing market as a whole is in balance.

In the 27713 zipcode, which is south Durham very loosely based around Southpoint Mall 435 homes were listed as of yesterday, June 7. 135 homes sold in the area during May, which means there is currently only 3.2 months of inventory available....

[I]t is just one more sign that the Durham housing market is relatively stable, especially when compared to the markets constantly mentioned in the media.

Read more over at Bull City Real Estate.

Comments

[Steve Nicewarner]

Thanks for the kind words. Gives me more incentive to get the graphics fixed on my site.

I was surprised at the numbers too. 27713 has always been one of the stronger Durham real estate markets, especially with Southpoint driving so much construction, but those May numbers are surprising and good, even when compared with the rest of the county. I've been saying for months that Durham housing is holding its own -- these numbers back me up.

Steve Nicewarner

[Justin Y]

If you zillow homes in the 27713 zipcode, the appreciation has been much higher than other areas of Durham, for example, the north side of Durham.

[AR]

Zillow.com has some major errors in it in older neighborhoods like mine (Forest Hills). For example, it says that my neighbor's single family house contains "two units." Also, a lot of the square footages are way off.