Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors

a century of representing local realtors

With a hundred years to draw on, the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors® continues to serve the needs of Realtors® in this region’s sought-after housing market.

There are very few housing markets in the US that can rival the Raleigh region when it comes to spectacular surroundings, historical charm, and a host of housing options to suit every taste.

Representing pockets such as the famed Research Triangle Park and dotted with historically significant communities throughout, Raleigh’s real estate market consistently ranks among the most desirable in the nation.

The stats back up these claims with impressive year-over-year housing gains despite rising interest rates and an inflationary climate that could hamper housing sales in other US real estate markets.

Sales numbering in the double digits in 2022 told the story, with 144 sales of properties $1 million and over and an impressive 79 properties sold between $1.75 million and $2 million. Topping the sales list, five properties sold in the area for a whopping $5 million.

With highly skilled talent drawn to the Raleigh region, the housing prospects remain bright despite a slight downward trend in housing sales across the US post-COVID.

Tim McBrayer, President-Elect

For Tim McBrayer, President-Elect of the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors (RRAR) and a Realtor® in the region himself, serving the needs of other local Realtors is all in a day’s work.

“Next year will be the 100th Anniversary of the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors®. Like other associations such as the National Association of Realtors®, we were founded because we wanted to make sure we were working with our clients, our potential clients, and each other in a professional and ethical way,” McBrayer explains.

McBrayer points out that from 1924 to now, RRAR’s members have continued to fine-tune and adjust the rules and standards that had been outlined while ensuring that the association is still doing its very best to serve its members and the general public in the region it represents.

It can be argued that striving for this goal potentially could have become difficult once the pandemic hit. However, despite predictions that had leaned towards negative outcomes for the housing market, Raleigh fared exceptionally well.

As a result, the challenge for RRAR then became how to best represent its members who were busier than ever through COVID while it focused on remaining open with impending pandemic restrictions.

“Right off the bat, our challenge was to keep our doors open for business.”

“While our state legislators and NC Governor Roy Cooper decided to deem our industry as essential, it was because of the investments in our Realtor® Political Action Committee or RPAC that meant we had state leaders who understood the importance of what we did as Realtors® and what great harm it would do to our economy and the public state of mind if we would not be able to help them buy and sell homes,” McBrayer reflected.

McBrayer also attributed RRAR’s ability to stay open and serve its members during the worst of the pandemic to the local leaders in the Wake County Commission who also had to be convinced to allow the association to do business.

“These local leaders understood the value that Realtors® provide to our economy and our community, especially during a national threat such as COVID-19. While some other counties went months without the ability to do any business at all, we never had that problem in Wake County,” he highlighted.

McBrayer insists that staying open for business while reassuring local Realtors®, did not offset other negative impacts that the pandemic created, such as the increased stress put on local Realtors®, the need to work around COVID protocols, and the need to combat buyers’ fears during the pandemic.

“We just didn’t know what the future held and people who already lived here, who may have transferred into our area, and companies that might have expanded didn’t either,” he added.

Since 2020, McBrayer relays that interest in the association has continued to increase.

“I was the RPAC Chair in 2020 and COVID-19 had a negative impact on investments but the following year and ever since we have exceeded our goals because more of our 10,500+ members have come to realize the importance of investing in RPAC.”

The region itself, McBrayer pinpoints, was another reason that the pandemic did not deter the work of the association and the business seen by local Realtors® serving the area.

“Raleigh and the Triangle are very well positioned due to low taxes, good public education, great health care, good climate and it is centrally located between the mountains and the coast,” he describes.

The residents that make up the region also tend to share favorable attributes that help to prop up the housing market, McBrayer mentions.

“Many of our residents have a much higher average level of education and income,” he notes.

“This is due in part to having three major universities including UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, and North Carolina State as well as several more colleges and a great community college system we call Wake Tech.”

“It is also due to the fact that a lot of high-tech companies like Epic Games and Apple to biotech companies like Tempus and Roche are operating here and many others are coming or expanding,” McBrayer states.

Along with advocating, educating, and overseeing its members, RRAR also keeps its finger on the pulse of the local real estate market and can provide up-to-date year-over-year stats.

“Since 2012 houses have pretty much appreciated. Before 2007, the appreciation rate averaged about 3.5% per year,” McBrayer says.

“Over the last several years appreciation has averaged over 20% and no one I’ve talked to expects it to go below 10% for the next few years because our market continues to be a destination market. Just in Wake County alone, we see an average net increase of 65 people a day. So many of those are consumers moving to the area to get away from high taxes, high crime rates, high prices and over-regulation in other states such as New York, New Jersey and California.”

The association has identified key areas that may serve as challenges for the area and chief among those challenges is the need for more housing, especially affordable housing.

“It is probably the biggest problem we face. Builders can’t build houses fast enough, so more people than ever before are renting,” McBrayer outlines.

“I don’t think they are renting by choice, rather they simply can’t find a home that meets their needs or that they can realistically afford. In 2022 inventory here sold on average in just 16 days so if you are listing or selling your home there are very few complaints,” he adds.

Mortgage rates and other inflationary factors are also trends that RRAR is keeping a close eye on while continuously informing their members through communication channels.

At this time of year the number of days inventory stays on the market have historically risen, and in the spring and summer months there have always been more buyers as well as more properties on the market. No matter what the state of the economy or the industry, RRAR wants its members to be as well-informed as possible to best serve their needs.

RRAR is looking to the future and sees a very clear path ahead. The prospects for its members look lucrative and the association itself continues to predict great strides as pandemic is being relegated to their and the public’s rearview mirrors.

“I think the future is very bright for this area,” McBrayer relays.

“We have great outdoor activities such as parks, walking and biking trails, great dining with award-winning chefs, great cultural activities, and two interstate highways that don’t go through downtown Raleigh, but are close enough to give all citizens easy access,” he continues. “Don’t forget the natural beauty of the area. So many of my clients moving from other parts of the country can’t believe how many trees we have and how green everything is.”

From a housing perspective, “There are new developments and new businesses going up everywhere and yet there is still so much land left for future development. Housing opportunities will be more abundant in areas further out from urban centers, however, with more of us working from home than ever before, the growth of the greater Raleigh market will be in all directions.”

“I don’t see how this area will do anything but continue to grow and thrive,” McBrayer concludes.

AT A GLANCE

Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors

What: The advocacy and educational body representing Realtors® in the Raleigh and surrounding region

Where: Raleigh, North Carolina

Website: https://www.rrar.com/