For many years the contrast between the vibrancy of the luxury home markets in Durham and those in Chapel Hill has been stark. Chapel Hill has boomed and Durham typically has two and a half years worth of inventory on the market. The joke was that the best thing that could happen to the Durham luxury home market would be to be to get Chapel Hill to annex Durham and give everyone in Durham a Chapel Hill address. Ha ha.
I never thought that was funny but a blog post on BullCityRising got me thinking about how the distance between the two communities is shrinking in a lot of ways. The post is about an article in Bon Appetit magazine covering how “Durham-CH has become one of the country’s foodiest small towns.” Unnoticed by me until recently, Durham is now the lead city in the Metropolitian Statistical Area (MSA) that includes Durham, Orange and Chatham counties. I made a quick stab at trying to research when this divorce from Raleigh and Wake County took place but couldn’t come up with anything. However, I doubt that it is cause as much as effect of what you see when you look at where development is taking place.
Much of my attention has been focused on the revitalization of Downtown Durham and the positive impact that it is finally having on Durham’s image. But the fact of the matter is that a lot of the most active development is going on between Durham and Chapel Hill. The short trip east on highway 54 or I-40 from Chapel Hill takes you to Southpoint, with some of the best shopping in the region and much commercial development. A great deal of development is also occurring on the 15-501 corridor between the South Square area and Chapel Hill. The road improvements on this stretch will only stimulate more interaction between the communities. Two of the region’s really nice upscale communities, The Oaks and Meadowmont, actually straddle the county line, albeit with Chapel Hill addresses by virtue of being in the 27517 zip code. There is actually more activity in the Chatham County luxury home market than in Durham proper, although they are both in the same SMA led by Durham. Less visable but also important is the residential development along and off Erwin Road and around the Koristan Division of Duke Forest.
What does this mean for the luxury home market in Durham?
I can see the day when most people moving here for the region’s high tech industries and research universities will be less aware of the historic distinctions between the communities. But that day is not here yet. Today the owner of upscale property in Durham still faces uncertain prospects and a lot of competition if they desire to sell. There is still a need for exceptional marketing to stimulate sales in Durham’s several really fine neighborhoods. It still amazes me that most of the current efforts in this area still focus on the “bricks and sticks” when this is the least likely thing to turn the tide. Durham still suffers from an image that is out of touch and out of date. Real estate agents need to be in the forefront of selling the community and its numerous amenities to agents in other areas of the region and to buyers around the world. The Bon Appetit article highlights just one of these…our foodie community. For more details on how to make this happen see the report on the Durham luxury home market that launched this blog site.
