North Carolina has not been immune to the depression found in the United States real estate market. The Raleighs real estate in particular has seen many better days.
No matter the type of real esate in Raleigh, farmland, commercial, residential, condos single families all areas of the real estate market have been hit hard. Commercial real estate, that was beginning to find solid footing in the Triangle just as the boom came to a bust is suffering the most.
“The commercial real estate market here faces its worst year” since the early 1990s, said Jimmy Barnes, president of NAI Carolantic Realty, a Raleigh real estate services firm.
In fact the News and Observer reports:
The Triangle’s office vacancy rate ended the year at 13 percent, flat when compared with 2007. But vacancies are expected to rise this year. Landlords will compete with shrinking companies that are trying to cut losses by subleasing excess space. Rents could soften as a smaller pool of prospective tenants gain leverage.
Understand that cycles are normal, so too are extreme bad and good cycles. However booms and busts are not as dramatic as they have been in Raleigh and the rest of the country.
Real Estate Advice for 2009
Too bad there is not a crystal ball that all residents in North Carolina could use to predict how long prices will continue to fall. The best position to be in today is to be aggressive as banks are doing what they can to survive, so too should the average homeowner. Whether you are in commercial, residential or industrial work what you can to be creative with making your mortgage, finding tennants or keeping an empty house rented.
For instance if you own a home in Raleigh and you were hoping to get a tennant for $1800 a month, consider dropping the price to $1000 a month as getting some rent is better than having to pay an entire mortgage by yourself as the rules to the Raleigh real estate market have changed dramatically.
I won’t keep ranting but be sure to understand the Raleigh Real Estate market is a small cog inside of a larger real estate cycle and economic cycle. You can succeed.