Raleigh's housing market just posted the steepest price decline of any major metro in the country. The median home price fell 3.4% year over year to $425,000 in September, and it's part of a broader slowdown that's left sellers cutting prices across the Triangle while mortgage rates hover near 7.4%.
The 3.4% drop was the sharpest among the 40 largest U.S. markets, according to a Raleigh housing report from Homes.com. That stands in stark contrast to the national picture, where home prices actually rose 0.6% from a year earlier over the same period, per the same report. Raleigh's median townhome price fared even worse, sliding 7.1% year over year to $325,000.
Sales are slipping too. Raleigh home sales fell 2.4% in September to 1,731, marking the third straight month of annual declines, Homes.com reports. Zachery Eanes, writing for Axios, frames the slowdown as a direct consequence of rising mortgage rates softening demand across the Raleigh area and forcing homeowners to reconsider their asking prices.
Inventory Keeps Climbing, But Still Trails Pre-Pandemic Levels
Homes for sale in Raleigh grew 4.4% year over year in September, reaching 5,333 listings, the Homes.com data shows. That marked the fifth straight month inventory growth came in below 10%, a sign the market isn't flooding with new listings so much as slowly loosening. Even with that growth, Raleigh inventory remains 29.8% below its September 2019 total of 7,596 homes, according to the same report.
Other datasets paint a similar picture with different numbers. Blair Whelan Realty, citing Realtor.com figures, put Raleigh's active listings at roughly 3,272 in September with a median marketing time of 61 days, and pegged the median sold price near $440,000 against a median asking price of $449,900, a gap the firm says gives Blair Whelan Realty reason to tell buyers they may have room to negotiate repairs, closing costs or purchase price, even as homes offering exceptional value can still draw competing offers. Separately, Blue Orchid Realty reported new listings down 3.7% and closed sales down 10.1% in September, with months of supply rising from 3.8 to 4.1.
Competing Offers Have All But Vanished
Just 8% of Raleigh home sales involved competing offers in September, a steep drop from the 25% rate recorded in September 2023, according to seed data cited by Axios. Raleigh homes sell about 2% below list. The Homes.com report puts the median time on market at 73 days, essentially flat with a year earlier.
Price cuts have become far more common. More than half of homes listed across the Triangle had their initial asking prices reduced in September, according to local appraiser Stacey Anfindsen's monthly Triangle-area residential realty market report, cited by Axios. Anfindsen's report also found price reductions were up 15% in September compared with the prior year, and noted that early market signals pointed to slowing demand well before the month was over.
Why Rates Still Matter More Than Price Cuts
Anfindsen told Axios that higher borrowing costs increase monthly payments, reduce purchasing power and may delay purchase decisions altogether — a dynamic that helps explain why falling prices alone haven't been enough to revive sales. The average monthly mortgage payment on a Raleigh home reached $3,643 in September, compared with just $1,390 in September 2020, per the seed figures. Longer time on market tends to make homeowners more likely to cut their asking price further, and rising borrowing costs make even those reduced prices harder for buyers to afford.
The rate environment hasn't made things easy nationally either. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate stood at 7.41% on Oct. 23, down slightly from 7.50% the week before, according to Mortgage News Daily. Even with that small dip, purchase mortgage applications fell 7% for the week ending Oct. 16 and sat 18% below year-ago levels, while total application volume dropped 5.3% over the same week.
HousingWire reported that rates had fallen from recent highs near 7.60% to about 7.30%, with weekly pending home sales posting only a small gain once rates eased, while the share of homes receiving price cuts nationally was a bit above last year. Homes.com projects home prices and sales into 2027.
Price Cuts Across the Triangle
Meanwhile, individual price cuts have shown up across the Triangle this year: a North Raleigh home on Society Place dropped $50,000 to $1,149,900, a Durham home on Kirkwood Drive fell $71,000 from its original list price, a 16.9% decline, and a Chapel Hill home on Great Ridge Parkway went pending after a $31,000 cut to $794,000, according to the News & Observer.
