In 2010, just one single-family home in all of Durham County sold for more than $1 million. In 2022, 61 homes sold for seven figures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The 9th Street Journal analyzed home sales data from the Durham County Tax Administration from 2010 through the first half of 2023. Even after adjusting for inflation, the increase in seven-figure sales is significant: Between 2010 and 2022, the last full year for which data is available, the number of homes that sold for at least $1 million in today\u2019s dollars grew from 15 to 84.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Viewed in terms of percentages, the rise is even steeper: Between 2010 and the first half of 2023, the percent of Durham homes that sold for at least $1 million increased seven-fold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Peter Skillern, CEO of the North Carolina-based nonprofit Reinvestment Partners, has witnessed the transformation of Durham\u2019s housing market.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith the advent of billions of dollars moving into the Durham real estate market, and the incredible explosive growth, central city neighborhoods have transformed over the past 10 years,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are million-dollar homes being built and sold where once you could buy property for less than $20,000.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n Click to view an interactive version of this graph.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>\n Condominium sales \u2013 while a minority of total Durham home sales \u2013 made a big contribution to the rise in seven-figure sales.<\/span><\/p>\n The first seven-figure condo sale in Durham County took place in 2015. That single sale represented less than one percent of all condo sales for the year. In the first half of 2023, nearly 10 percent of condominiums sold in Durham went for $1 million or more \u2013\u2013 a more than ten-fold increase.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After adjusting for inflation, the pattern persists. In 2012, less than one percent of Durham condo units sold for $1 million in today\u2019s dollars. In just the first half of 2023, that number was 10 times higher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re buying a downtown condo in Durham, that’s about as expensive housing as you can find anywhere in the Triangle, per square foot,\u201d says Jeff Lyons, a realtor at Inhabit Real Estate.<\/span><\/p>\n\n Click to view an interactive version of this graph.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>\n Durham home prices across all categories have increased steadily in the past decade. In the first half of this year, half of Durham County homes sold for over $400,000 \u2014 more than double the median price a decade ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Luxury sales are still the minority of all home sales in the county. But they have accelerated even faster than overall home sales in Durham.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n Click to view an interactive version of this graph.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>\n Realtors and policy activists say they have seen the starkest transformation in downtown Durham, where several large condominium developments opened in recent years. <\/span>One City Center<\/span><\/a>, a 28-story high-rise downtown completed in 2018, sold 12 units for more than $1 million in 2019. <\/span>The Bartlett<\/span><\/a>, a seven-story condominium completed in 2019, added more million-dollar sales that year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More luxury high-rises are on the way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Novus<\/span><\/a>, a 27-story development at 404 W. Main Street, is slated to be completed in 2024. It is being developed by <\/span>Austin Lawrence Partners<\/span><\/a>\u2013\u2013a real estate developer based in Durham and in Aspen, Colorado\u2013\u2013the same company that developed One City Center. The median list price for a unit in The Novus is over <\/span>$1.7 million<\/span><\/a>, and a three-bedroom condo <\/span>lists<\/span><\/a> for over $4 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lyons has watched downtown Durham\u2019s transformation in the nearly 25 years since he moved the Triangle, as more restaurants opened, along with tourist attractions like the Durham Performing Arts Center.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOnce upon a time, if you wanted to have a big grand night out\u2026 you go to Raleigh,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, you can have a staycation in Durham.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Some Durham realtors have mixed feelings about the pace at which new condominiums are being developed. Sudi Swirles, Durham realtor and co-founder of Peak Swirles & Cavallito Properties, believes that developers downtown are \u201cdoing a real disservice to the community\u201d by replacing historic buildings and green space with high-rise condominiums. She also worries about the effect on local businesses. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t afford to live downtown unless you\u2019re making serious money,\u201d she says. \u201cI sure hope that [these developers] aren’t going to end up running out and pricing out all these small businesses that are \u2026 what makes downtown interesting.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n Click to view an interactive version of this map.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>\n One factor driving up area home prices is the entrance of Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Meta, and Google, which has a large enough Bull City presence that it now has its name on the side of a downtown office building. Apple recently announced <\/span>plans<\/span><\/a> to hire 3,000 locally at expected average salaries of <\/span>$187,000<\/span><\/a> \u2013\u2013 more than twice the <\/span>median household income<\/span><\/a> in Durham County.<\/span><\/p>\n However Adrian Brown, a realtor and partner at Inhabit Real Estate, says he thinks high-end units downtown often attract older people. Sometimes, Brown says, buyers have properties elsewhere. \u201cSo, [this condo] could be a second home,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, with the intention of it eventually being a full-time home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I get the impression, at least from my experience, that they’re more older people buying them \u2013\u2013 people here who want to be closer to their kids who live here<\/span>,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n Some clients, he says, are drawn to the convenience and amenities of downtown Durham\u2019s condominium high-rises. \u201cThey’re basically just wanting a no-upkeep, turnkey sort of lifestyle\u2013\u2013lock it and leave it,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n Brown recently helped a client from Florida purchase a townhouse unit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe was thinking she wanted a house, and I showed her a great condo,\u201d he says. \u201cShe wanted that very easy, low-maintenance kind of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Skillern says buyers\u2019 tastes, too, are changing. A wealthy buyer might have previously preferred a neighborhood that allowed them to \u201cisolate\u201d in neighborhoods with \u201cpeople who look like [them], share [their] values,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n While those neighborhoods are still in demand, Skillern says he has seen recent growth in neighborhoods located more centrally to downtown Durham.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs opposed to getting a big house with a big lawn on an exclusive golf course, [wealthy buyers are] getting a home that’s on Roxboro Street,\u201d\u00a0 he says.<\/span><\/p>\n Many of the wealthy buyers Lyons sees have been from out of state. His first out-of-state client, around five years ago, was a buyer from Pennsylvania, whose budget for a \u201cmiddle-of-the-road\u201d house in Durham exceeded $600,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The couple had moved to Durham for a medical provider job at Duke University. Lyons helped them purchase a \u201clovely, old farm-style house\u201d in Trinity Park, a neighborhood near downtown Durham.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI remember them saying that they didn’t want to spend much on a house,\u201d Lyons says. \u201cThe scale of affordability is just different for people who come from other places.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since then, he has served clients from New York, Washington, and Massachusetts, among others, whose budgets have shifted increasingly upward.<\/span><\/p>\n For clients who come from states with higher costs, Durham still seems relatively affordable.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to buy a brand new house for $700,000 in North Carolina, with everything they wanted, and three times bigger than the place they\u2019re living in now\u2013\u2013that\u2019s incredibly attractive,\u201d Lyons says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Brown agrees that out-of-state buyers are often unfazed by sticker shock that locals may experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey just have more resources to throw at a house,\u201d Brown says. \u201cThey were coming from an area where they\u2019d go, \u2018$1.5 million for this house [in Durham]? You’re kidding. This would be like, $5 million, where I’m coming from.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Brown worked with a buyer to purchase a condo unit downtown this past winter. The clients, who were older but still working, purchased a $1.5 million condo unit in a high-rise where they had previously been renting. They saw downtown Durham real estate as a good investment opportunity \u2013\u2013 better than the stock market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey just thought, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just buy one [unit] and put our money to good use?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThey just wanted to put their money into something that would appreciate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lyons\u2019 most recent million-dollar client was a couple around 30 years old, from New York.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The couple, who graduated from Duke, lived and worked in New York City and owned an apartment there. They approached Lyons for help finding a house in Durham.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey would come down here from time to time, and [thought] it\u2019d be nice to have a place to stay here,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They bought a house in a Durham neighborhood, where they plan to stay when they are in town. They plan to convert it to a short-term rental in the months when they aren\u2019t here, Lyons says, while they consider eventually moving to Durham full-time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I can tell, they can very easily afford to do what they were trying to do,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n The increase in demand for homes in Durham has turned the housing market into a sellers\u2019 market, says Lyons.<\/span><\/p>\n And in that market, wealthy, out-of-town buyers often have an advantage over local buyers. Not only can wealthier buyers outbid others, they can also offer a higher due diligence fee\u2013\u2013a sum the buyer pays in exchange for the seller removing the home from the market.<\/span><\/p>\n Swirles says many wealthy buyers from out-of-state are also less affected by high interest rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMany people are coming from areas like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and California, with a lot of cash in their pocket,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re able to pay cash, and interest rates don\u2019t affect them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, some local buyers have trouble finding homes in Durham they can afford to buy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think what’s really hard is the people trying to move locally, going from a $500,000 house to a $1 million house,\u201d Brown says. \u201cThat’s been a lot harder, locally. I don’t see that as much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lyons says he now encourages local buyers with lower budgets to look outside Durham\u2019s central neighborhoods \u2013\u2014 either further out from the center of town or in a neighboring county.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFolks start their search thinking that they’re going to be able to find a house in a walkable neighborhood in the center of Durham,\u201d he says.. \u201cThe problem with that, is that happens to be some of the most expensive real estate in all of Durham.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Skillern and the nonprofit he leads, Reinvestment Partners, have been working to maintain Durham\u2019s relative affordability despite the transformation the city has undergone.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe gap of affordability is bigger than it\u2019s ever been,\u201d Skillern says. \u201cThere’s a tremendous need for us to continue to advocate and produce permanent affordable housing for a range of needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Previously, Skillern\u2019s nonprofit was able to buy property for community use relatively cheaply. \u201cThe dynamic is a bit different now,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause of this investment that’s now driving multibillion-dollar apartments in central city neighborhoods that, at one time, nobody wants to live in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With a <\/span>subdivision<\/span><\/a> of million-dollar homes currently being built in Chatham County, and a recent $7-million home <\/span>listing<\/span><\/a> in Raleigh, the luxury market\u2019s growth is affecting the entire Triangle.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/million-dollar-condos-graph1-1024x662.png\")
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