And this is exactly why I could never afford to live downtown. These prices are absurd. My family thinks I’m crazy for paying what I did for my townhouse in N Raleigh. But double or triple that (or more) to get something equivalent downtown. Its just not in the cards on my finances while raising a family.
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And yet still much cheaper than, say, the SF Bay Area, which is why I moved here, mostly.
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Which is a factor that will continue to drive things…ants marching…
Just for a quick comparison… I paid $100k more for a townhouse in N Raleigh, than my brother did for a house in Ardmore near downtown Winston-Salem, and my parents bought a 15 acre farm in rural Surry County for the about the same as my brother paid for his house in Winston. Is the Raleigh housing market that inflated? Or am I still stuck back at “home” when it comes to housing costs? I can’t even fathom what it would be like in a place like DC, Chicago, or anywhere in California.
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I think that an advantage that the Raleigh market offers that differentiates it from high cost areas like the San Francisco Bay Area, etc., is that there are different housing price points available and the median households incomes in the Triangle are relatively high in comparison to its median.
In places like the Bay Area, there aren’t really any affordable areas you can go. You can buy a home 30 miles away from the job centers in San Jose or San Francisco, and still pay a million dollars for what’s considered a starter home in the Triangle. 5432 San Juan Way, Pleasanton, CA 94566 | Zillow
Go to the outskirts of the Triangle in a place like Clayton and you can buy a similar sized home for 1/5 the price. 1173 Hood Farm Rd, Clayton, NC 27520 | Zillow
That literally does not happen in places like the Bay Area and there’s similar stories in other hot employment locations. There’s a reason why places like Raleigh and Austin are exploding.
Of course, there are also expensive parts of Raleigh, but even the very best locations/housing product in Raleigh aren’t commanding the $/ft2 that far flung Bay Area communities command. When you get closer to the employment centers there, $1000/ft prices are not uncommon and can be exceeded.
Here’s an example of housing in one of the best locations in the Bay Area. Imagine paying 2M for this in Hayes Barton, or Country Club Hills, etc. 3350 Stockton Pl, Palo Alto, CA 94303 | Zillow?
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I moved from Greensboro to downtown Raleigh. If you are from North Carolina it is indeed hard to wrap your head around a place just an hour or so away with a much stronger housing market. I wanted a change and looked at most everywhere in the country. Once you do that, like me you start to appreciate what the Triangle offers. Because I grew up so close, I always took the Triangle for granted.
I paid up for downtown, on the bet that downtown will continue to improve. Do not like real cold cities so the Midwest was out. Charlotte and Atlanta, although vibrant, just seemed out of control with poor planning. D.C. is what I really like but felt like I was a decade too late and had already run up. Even places like Charleston and Wilmington, that are based on tourist economies are expensive. Sooooo, even though I had grand plans to move far away, here I am 50 miles from where I grew up.
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Sure, you can buy a home for 1/5 the cost in Clayton but you have to live in Clayton. So you know, there’s a trade off…
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Ah yes, my good old hometown of Palo Alto, CA, where the housing prices are beyond insane now. But I did appreciate growing up on the safe, leafy streets of PA and that’s what I liked about this area for raising my kids. It (here) just lacked some of the more interesting aspects afforded by a larger, denser population, which is why I’m personally happy to see things change in that direction, although I also completely understand the downside that has on housing prices.
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It’s actually a very reasonable option to have a single car family if you live downtown as well. And with that, we rarely use our car with 2 people in the household. Even without COVID-19, my wife works 2 miles away and has ridden a bike and walked before.
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Sounds about right to me. When you add it all up and include the cost of living, this area is great. The water at the beach is even warm enough to swim in! Summer is still a little humid for this CA boy though. 
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I grew up in Los Gatos. My parents had a 4bedroom house built new in 1965 for $21,000. Chew on that a while!
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Same for a lot of my friends’ parents. Alas my parents were renters not buyers!
And my parents sold out and transferred to Raleigh before the silicon valley RE boom. At that time, Raleigh’s housing was higher than SJ because NYers were pushing the market higher.
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4 posts were split to a new topic: 320/328 W. South Street - 20-story rezoning
According to their website, the Lynde is down to ONE unit under contract.
No surprise to me. The only surprising thing to me would be if it sold out. I don’t think that this project will go forward.
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The vacant building next to Boulted is being renovated. Some kind of retail/collaboration/bar/event space? #allthebuzzwords. Sounds like rooftop patio might be in the works.
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All the things! Looking forward to the transformation.
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Here’s their website: https://www.hartwellraleigh.com/ Nice share!
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I hope they keep that historical metal gate over the door. 
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