July 2022’s Median Price of Wake County Real Estate drops $4,000 to $466,000.

A mix of apartment/multi-family housing and commercial real estate – make up the Very High-value segment totaling $442 million.

Deed of Trust activity had a decrease of 15% from June 2022’s level.

Raleigh, NC – Wake County’s Very High-value Segment (real estate sales transactions worth $30 million and above) topped at just over $442 million in July 2022. This is a $162 million, or 26%, decrease from June 2022’s very-high value market amount. July 2022’s very high-value segment transactions are as follows:

1. Aldon at Powell & Broad Apartments, Fuquay-Varina, NC: $129 million 
2. Aviation Crossing Apartments, Morrisville, NC: $120 million 
3. North Hills at Town Center, Raleigh, NC: $72 million 
4. Bradford Square, Outparcels and Apartments, Cary, NC: $42 million
5. Double Tree Hotel, Hillsborough St. Raleigh, NC: $42 million
6. 800, 809, 813 Brooklyn Street Apartment Buildings, Raleigh, NC: $36 million

The High-value segment, (transactions worth between $1 million to $30 million), stood at 184 transactions totaling over $486 million, a decrease of just over $173 million, or 26%, from June 2022.

Transactions in the Core Market (property valued at $1 million or less) saw 2,393 transactions (325 less than June 2022) totaling just over $1.1 billion, down 12% from June 2022’s total of $1.26 billion.

Total sales value from all three segments equaled over $2 billion for July 2022, down 20% from June’s total sales of over $2.25 billion. 2,582 total sales occurred in July 2022 which is a 12.9% decrease in the number of total sales compared to June 2022’s total sales of 2,966.

The following chart shows the dollar value of real estate transfers by month broken down into three price ranges.

A breakdown of the dollar value of transactions by price range for the years 2014 – 2019 is available at http://www.wakegov.com/news/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1140.

Median sales prices

The median sales price of a parcel of Wake County real estate for July 2022 was $465,750 down $4250 from June’s 2022’s price of $470,000.  

Changes in median sales prices tend to be caused by activity in the core market. The occurrence or non-occurrence of large transactions has virtually no impact on the calculation of median values because there are so few of those transactions. 92.64% of July 2022’s transactions occurred in the core market.

Lending saw slight decrease in July 2022

Real estate lending activity in July 2022 decreased by 15% from June 2022’s level and compared to July 2021, it was down 39% There were 3,834 deed of trust transactions in July 2022, where June 2022’s deed of trust transactions showed 4,564 – a loss of 730 transactions.

Real estate lending activity has two primary components.

1. The first is lending that coincides with a transfer of ownership of real estate. This is seen in the typical residential home sale where simultaneously a seller’s loan is paid off and a buyer takes out a new loan as ownership is transferred by deed.
2. The second is where a new loan secured by real estate is taken out, but there is not a change in ownership of the underlying property. This is the situation in the typical mortgage refinancing or second mortgage transaction.

The relative strength of the second type of lending activity can be quantified by comparing the ratio of deeds of trust to deeds in a period. Relatively more deeds of trust signify increasing refinance of mortgage loans.

In early 2019 through 2021, we saw a significant increase in the second type of lending activity. The following chart shows the comparative gap between deeds of trust and deeds. This gap, compared to a baseline of early 2020, quantifies the level of strength in the mortgage refinance market. For comparison, the gap measured 1.48 in January 2020 and was at its widest in February 2021 at 2.5. July 2022 saw the gap between deeds of trust and deeds volume narrow to a ratio of 1.18 below May’s ratio of 1.22. That is a 3.27% decline. This indicates the refinancing market continued to cool in July 2022.

Long-Term Trends in Real Estate Activity

Aggregate value of real estate transactions

The following chart shows the aggregate dollar value of real estate transactions in Wake County for each month from 2020 through year-to-date 2022. Because real estate transactions tend to be seasonal, it is useful to compare monthly results to the corresponding month of prior years.

Aggregate value of real estate transactions - linear

The following chart shows the aggregate dollar value of real estate transfers in Wake County linearly (month by month) from January 2020 through year-to-date 2022. Because real estate transactions tend to be seasonal, this information should be evaluated in conjunction with the year-over-year comparison as shown in the preceding chart.

Deed volume

The following chart shows the number of deeds recorded in Wake County for each month from 2020 through year-to-date 2022. Numbers of deeds recorded reflect the velocity of real estate activity without regard to the dollar value of a transaction. The number of deeds includes transfers where monetary consideration did not change hands, such as transfers within a family.

Real estate lending

This chart shows the number of deeds of trust recorded in Wake County for each month from 2020 through year-to-date 2022. A deed of trust is the legal instrument used in North Carolina to secure a loan with real estate used as collateral. Numbers of deeds of trust recorded reflect the velocity of lending transactions involving real estate without regard to the dollar amount of the loan.

Methodology and Additional Information

The statistics in this report are derived from instruments recorded in the office of the Wake County Register of Deeds. Under North Carolina law, changes in property rights in real estate, including security interests in real estate, are recorded with the Register of Deeds of the county where the real estate is located.

The value of real estate transferred is measured by excise tax assessed on the consideration in a real estate transaction. Excise taxes are calculated as $1 in tax for every five hundred dollars of consideration. About 99% of these transactions were property transfers by deed and the balance were miscellaneous transactions such as acquisitions of a right of way. The calculation of the aggregate value of real estate includes all transactions. The calculation of the median price includes all transactions where the property containing excise tax was transferred by deed.

The number of deeds and deeds of trust recorded with the Register of Deeds reflects the total volume of property and loan transactions regardless of the dollar value of the real estate or the amount of the loan. The number of deeds includes transfers where monetary consideration did not change hands, such as transfers within a family. In July 2022, 20% of deeds attracted no excise tax. In 2021, that percentage was 25% in the first quarter, 20% in the second quarter, 21% for the third quarter, and 23% for the fourth quarter.

For a complete picture of Wake County real estate activity, the information in this report should be considered in conjunction with data available from other sources, such as rezoning applications and new building permits, plus other information published by the Register of Deeds available at https://www.wakegov.com/news?department=29

This report was initially released on August 26, 2022.

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