View of downtown Raleigh from PricewaterhouseCooper and the Urban Land Institute’s annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate report
The predictions in the annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate report have been long considered a road map to the best real estate markets in the country. Raleigh/Durham moved up three positions to #4.
Now in its 39th year, Emerging Trends in Real Estate is one of the oldest and authoritative industry outlook for the real estate and land use industry. The market outlooks included in each edition are based on an extensive survey, multiple interviews, and individual market focus groups.
Here are the top 10 markets and their rankings last year (in parentheses):
1. Seattle (4)
2. Austin, Texas (1)
3. Salt Lake City (18)
4. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (7)
5. Dallas-Fort Worth (2)
6. Fort Lauderdale, Florida (35)
7. Los Angeles (5)
8. San Jose, California (17)
9. Nashville, Tennessee (6)
10. Boston (12)
Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2018 (pdf)
Summary for Raleigh/Durham
Local property/Market outlook
- Positive sentiment regarding office and single family, local economy, investor demand, capital availability, development community
Demographics and livability
- 61,000 annual net migration, ages 15-34 up 15.4% next 5 years
- Culinary ranking – 2nd to highest quintile
- Outdoor activities – 2nd to highest quintile
- One brewery per 38,000 residents
Cost
- Cost of doing business is 88% of national average
- Disposable income growth is 1.4x national average
- Housing affordability is very strong at 173.5 (median income can afford a house priced at 173% of the median home price)
Technology readiness
- Computer related employment – 5.2% of total employment
- Patents per Capita – .77 per 1,000 highest quintile