Triangle real estate market holds steady amid coronavirus pandemic

We first talked to Raleigh real estate agent Tricia Manneh on April 1, 2020. This was few days after North Carolina began its stay at home order.

She was optimistic at the time and her mood hasn't changed.

"Since we last talked, I've listed two homes and they've both gone off," Manneh said.

While many markets, particularly big cities, appear to be slowing at high rates right now, the Raleigh Metro is staying pretty steady.

Locally, new listings are down about 19% which is better than the national average of 37%. This is according to Zillow.

Local experts are seeing the same trends in statistics. Stacey Anfindsen has been analyzing real estate in this market since the 1980's. He is particularly interested in the "pending listing" metric, which is rather average right now.

He looked at the second week of April in 2020 compared to the last ten years. 2020 is not as strong as last year but, it's also not the worst year.

"There are a lot of businesses where it has been the worst that it's been, but that is certainly not the case for residential real estate in the Triangle," Anfindsen said.

Moving forward real estate agents are hoping the trends will favor the Triangle. Many big cities, with dense populations, are struggling with the virus. This makes the Triangle region, which is more spread out, even more attractive.

"Everybody kind of agrees this is something that will happen again at some point -- hopefully not for a long long time, but now it's a thing you kind of have to think about," Anfindsen said.

It's cautious optimism in an area that was extremely hot before the virus. Experts are hoping the local economy and its strengths will continue to lead to strong real estate numbers as the year continues.