Hundreds attend homebuyer workshop in Raleigh

Hundreds gathered Saturday inside the Carolina Pines community center to learn the ins and outs of buying a home.

The event, hosted by the city of Raleigh, included three different workshops, plus booths and meet-and-greets, all designed to help attendees connect with programs, lenders, and know-how to buy and maintain a home.

"I was privately renting, and then they sold the home when the housing market got hot, so I'm just trying to get back on my feet," said Karina Miles is part of the sold-out crowd.

She's angling to get out of her mother's house and into her own.

"So I spent the last three years fixing my credit, so today was for me to get more education to move forward," said Miles.

The program provided many resources to either help people get into a home or help stay in a home.

"There are resources available to either help you get into your home or help you stay in your home, and hopefully to stay there for as long as you want," said Erika Brandt, Raleigh's housing program administrator.

Brandt, says this advice is essential with the current cost of housing in Raleigh.

"I think we all know that Raleigh is a high-housing cost market, so it's getting increasingly difficult to buy a home if you don't already own one and then for folks who do already own their home, it can be tough to keep up with the cost of maintenance and repairs," said Brandt.

The event comes as the latest numbers show home prices in the Triangle are on the rise yet again.

A recent report from Zillow says the cost of homes in Raleigh increased about 1.2% from May to June.

Although those prices are still below where they were this time last year.

"It's absolutely intimidating and overwhelming," said Karina Miles, one of the attendees. "But as long as you do the work on the front end, what I gathered from this session is there are people out here to help you."

Miles said she wants to be buying a home within a year. The average price of a home in the Raleigh metro area is about $436,000, which is out of reach for many people.

However, the city of Raleigh is offering a number of programs to help first-time homebuyers, including down payment assistance and closing cost assistance.

This week the average U-S home value rose above 350 thousand dollars for the first time and although sales have slowed slightly in the Raleigh metro area, prices increased 1-point-2 percent from May to June.

The homebuyer workshop sessions were recorded and will be posted on nc dot gov.