West Cary Real Estate Market
West Cary has definately held its own during the housing “down turn”. MLS area 10, Apex, Cary, Morrisville (basically from 64 north to the Durham County line and from the Chatham County line east to Davis, it includes all of the 27519 and 27617 zip codes) continues to have the most showing activity in the county.
This graph clearly shows we are off lows for showings, there is increase market activity.
The graph to the left shows the number of showings for area 10 over the last 25 months. This area has been the most active in the entire triangle mls over the last 24 months, and Cary Park and Highcroft commonly are among the most shown neighborhoods commonly having 8 plus showings per listing per month. These are areas of newer homes with newer amentities and in most cases newer schools. The elementary schools are among the highest ranked schools in the county with many of the elementary schools earning the Honor School of Excellence award the highest available. This is given to schools that have 90% of the students have tested at or above grade level and the school has shown annual improvement. The ease of commute to Raleigh, Chapel Hill and RTP are other factors making the 27519 a great place to live.Average Sold Price Per Square Foot for 27519
Average Sold Price Per Square Foot for 27519
The strongest markets are often the first to come back and as the graph to the left shows price per square foot is not only increasing month over month but for the last two months year to year comparisons are up as well. (May month do date is over $130 a sq ft). Our short down market really started in October of 2008, but with many new builds under contract closing in December and January the price numbers still looked great, but you can see from the graph above, activity really died in Q4 2008.
The real issue is awareness. Prices are increasing in the 200-400,000 price range in West Cary. They are definately stabilizing in in the $400-600,000 range. But by looking at listing inventory you would hardly know this. Agents are still encouraging price reductions below the numbers to the right inspite of the activity numbers above. I really don’t think they understand either. Case in point. One prominent subdivision in West Cary has two agent that currently dominate the development, and between the two of them they are competing to the bottom. Almost every new sale or listing by these agents achieves a new low point in pricing, when this is not needed.
In the same subidivision there have been three foreclosures sold in the last 12 months, Two for full sales price after 30 days on the market and one had a 1.4% discount after 70 days on the market, all three achieving higher price per square foot prices than the dominant agents! Yes these agents are smarter than the banks, they are selling owner occupied homes for less than foreclosures with knee high grass! Oh and by the way while this was going on, this subdivision had the 5th most showing activity in the area, and has only three months supply of listings! My gosh.
The point is education, knowledge and strategic intelligence will help you sell your home quickly and for the most money. Don’t let your neighbors ruin your value by panicking or letting their agent do that for them.
Unit sales are back on the upswing as well as mentioned the inventory numbers are around 8 months for the entire 27519 area.
The 84 closed sales in April was a great year over year increase from the 54 in April of 2009 and the May numbers will easily pass the 55 in May of 2009, (as of May 18 we are at 33 with an average price per square foot of over $130).
Part of the reason that inspite of price dropping the market has been resilient. Foreclosures have not gained any traction in West Cary to speak of. There have been a handful in many developments but many of the homes listed as foreclosures are simply marketing efforts by the listing agent to get showings (hint, if the home is listed as a foreclosure and has furniture, it is not a foreclosure). Who knew marketing your home as a foreclosure would become fashion?
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