Raleigh Durham rents have softened but nothing like Austin mentioned above. This is from Yardi Martrix the leader in apartment data and from their February report.
" Raleigh–Durham ended the year with a decline in rent movement
amid significant construction activity. Average advertised asking
rents were down 0.6% on a three-month basis through December,
to $1,520. Rents also contracted year-over-year, down 3.1%, while
the U.S. average marked a 0.6% expansion."
But also stated this fact which drives new residents: Net gain of over 22,000 jobs in the past 12 months DOUBLE the growth national growth rate of jobs. 12000 units completed last and 25,000 under construction right now in 2025 however all will not be completed this year.
While there is an oversupply with starts of new apartments falling off there will be tightness in the rental market in 2-3 years.
Softening of rent prices amid an increase in both supply and demand is not a bad thing. In fact, from the renter’s POV, it’s a very good thing. We want to keep attracting the best and brightest residents along with the job creation, and having housing that’s more affordable is a good thing. If anything, having Austin’s rents substantially soften makes them more competitive against us when it comes to attracting talent.
That’s possible, but I’d be interested in seeing new construction isolated for both downtowns as opposed to the metro, and I think we’d need to see the numbers for a longer time period than a single year to understand the volume of new units being added. The vacancy rate might paint a more accurate picture, and it looks like downtown Durham and downtown Raleigh are within 1% of each other. I wouldn’t think this would result in a 20% or more difference in asking rents, but maybe these are outliers.
Got dinner at Tucker St. Diner tonight. My chicken tenders were solid. But they still don’t have their ice cream machine yet, so no milkshake for me tonight 
But looks like work on Hone-Sharpen has just started. Smoky Hollow is getting closer & closer to being a filled out little shopping center. Exciting stuff
TBJ finally catching up to what we discussed days ago: Kane sold Peace to Cortland for $152m.
Nothing like paying for old news, huh?
I thought I remembered someone here mentioning a rumor of food trucks moving in to the phase 3 lot while it’s sitting vacant, but I can’t find it. In any case, we now have picnic tables out there. If I completely made up that rumor, then… the tables are nice, I guess?
We only know for sure that Happy + Hale is operating out of a shipping container there - but it sure would be cool for some semi-permanent or rotating food trucks to set up shop, as well. It would likely only boost Happy + Hale’s business, as well.