Raleigh-Cary NC is the #1 metro housing market in the nation that is expected to outshine all the rest.
Despite a steep drop in sales, the Raleigh-Cary market saw considerable price appreciation last year, with its median sales price for single-family homes jumping 7.3 percent from third-quarter 2010 to third-quarter 2011.
At $224,300, the Raleigh-Cary metro had the highest median sales price among the 10 markets on this list and was the only market with a median sales price above the U.S. median. Nonetheless, its affordability rate stayed above the national level, with 73.6 percent of its homes affordable to households earning the area’s median income, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.
The Raleigh market is buoyed by a young, educated population that grew a whopping 41.8 percent from 2000-2010, making it the fourth fastest-growing metro in the nation during that period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
