A record number of Triangle homes have sold for $1 million+ so far this year. Here’s why.

Throughout a year of unprecedented real estate activity driven by the pandemic, demand surged, supply dropped and home prices in the Triangle’s dense areas skyrocketed.

The number of homes sold in the Triangle with price tags of over $1 million has also followed suit.

In the first quarter of 2021, 153 homes closed in the area’s housing market for at least $1 million.

That’s more than twice as many as the 75 homes sold for that price in the same time period in 2020, according to Triangle Area Residential Report data.

The Triangle’s luxury housing market already was seeing upward trends of sales activity before the coronavirus pandemic, with the number of homes selling for $1 million and up growing by 360% between 2010 and 2019.

Seasoned real estate agents in the luxury market say trends will keep their pace from here on out.

“For the foreseeable future, those numbers will do nothing but continue to go upwards,” said John Wood, broker and owner of RE/MAX United offices in Raleigh, Cary and Chapel Hill.

“We have a rising tide, and therefore all properties are going up in value. Certainly, those homes that were under a million now are jumping over a million fairly quickly. But I could say the same things about the homes that were $425,000 and are now above $500,000.”

Factors like new construction and high material costs in the pandemic are driving prices up, Wood told The News & Observer. But it is largely competitive buyers who have contributed to homes going for higher prices.

Charlotte-based mortgage lending site LendingTree ranked the Raleigh metro area as having the third most competitive buyer market in the U.S.

These pricey home sales typically concentrate within the Beltline in Raleigh, but have been active in Chapel Hill, Cary and North Raleigh, Wood said, including the golf course communities of North Ridge in Raleigh and MacGregor Downs in Cary.

What factors are at play?

Out-of-town buyers and local residents upsizing their homes have contributed to the Triangle kicking off 2021 with so many homes sold in excess of $1 million.

“I can tell you we have a good supply of people who are moving local, and just move-ups — and we definitely have those that are still coming from out-of town,” said Wood, who oversees over 100 local real estate agents. “The technology, the biomedical fields and all that are bringing people in from all over the country and the world who have money.”

A strong stock market, plus people who have worked in successful industries during the COVID-19 shutdown, have helped wealthy home-buyers hold more cash to compete, Wood said.

“You’re getting a lot more for your money here when you spend a million dollars than you are in some markets like California and New York,” said Mollie Owen, a Realtor with Hodge & Kittrell Sotheby’s International Realty and a member of the local Luxury Home Marketing Group. “Especially in that $1 million-plus price bracket.”

Owen envisions upward trends in the luxury market as well, for the same reasons of the “COVID market,” in which buyers invest more in their homes and treat them as offices and schools for their children.

Growth over the long-term

In the past few months, major employers like Apple, Google and Fujifilm Diosynth have announced thousands of new jobs coming to the Triangle — jobs with high salaries attached to them.

The growth was well underway before those announcements, Wood said. But, she said, in the long run, “the recent job announcements and expansions, including Apple and Fujifilm and all these other job announcements, are going to fuel the entire market, including the luxury market.”

He estimates there will be well over 250 homes sold for over $1 million in the Triangle between April and June, based on current real estate closings.

The region’s economy has attracted out-of-state buyers for decades. But it’s new for them to find a housing market as competitive as those bigger cities, Wood said.

“We don’t really have any indications that there’ll be a slowdown,” Owen added. “And with the announcement of Apple coming here, I think we’re only going to see more activity in that price point.”

It won’t be long until the Raleigh and Durham housing market is considered a luxury market like other major cities, Camille Malcolm, a Realtor with United Real Estate, previously told The N&O.

Owen believes the Triangle already is considered an active luxury market.

“With all the announcements of new companies moving in, it gets more and more attractive every day,” she said.