In the first quarter of 2008, 11 luxury homes in Durham sold, which was 5 better than last year’s 6 during the same period. This seems encouraging at first blush since sales in the $700,000 or more category decreased in both Orange (22 down from 33) and Wake (101 down from 110.) That means that Durham doubled its marketshare from 4% to 8%. This seems like a positive development and maybe some of it is but it is not all rosy. The discounts from the original list prices ranged from $12,500 to $390,000 and the average was $128,500. Throw out the high and the low and the average was still $111,000. I did not calculate the average time on the market because to be meaningful I would have had to track back over several listings on some of them. One had been listed 4 separate times before it sold. Hope Valley, The Oaks and Meadowmont each had two sales. Croasdaile, Southpoint Manor, Tyndrum, Trinity Park, and Marydell each had one sale.

The 11 sales also didn’t put much of a dent in the inventory number. As of April 19, there were 83 homes in Durham on the market listed at $700,000 or more or about two years of inventory at current rates of absorbtion. 26 are in Hope Valley, 15 are in Treyburn, 12 are in Croasdaile, 6 are in The Oaks, 6 in the new Maida Vale, 3 are in Forest Hills, 2 are in Meadowmont and there are one each in Trinity Park, Duke Forest and Southpoint Manor. The rest are scattered throughout the county. Only about a quarter of the listings in Durham are new homes including all six in Maida Vale and at least 3 in Hope Valley that are just lots with no construction begun yet. That compares to 30% in Orange and 46% in Wake. There are another 62 luxury homes on the market in Chatham County, many of which have Chapel Hill addresses.

Durham’s overall market share among the three principal counties in terms of number of sales in all price ranges was 17%, which is substantially more than the 8% we have of the luxury market. A close look at the homes, the prices or the individual neighborhoods, does not explain why Durham shouldn’t get a higher percentage of the luxury home sales in the Triangle. From a marketing perspective the long term solution is to do a better job of promoting Durham and its unique and growing list of assets. The Newcomer’s Guide to Buying Luxury Real Estate in Durham available through the link in the sidebar is my attempt to provide one arrow in the quiver necessary for this effort. It may be a little too personal to plagarize verbatim but I hope every agent who lists in this market creates something similar or an improvement upon it and distributes them widely.

However, market share and long term strategies to promote Durham’s renaissance are irrelevant to the family with a home currently on the market. There are strategies that are not widely applied today that break with tradition as well as employ new technology to better position and promote a listing. The other report available on the sidebar, The Durham Luxury Home Report 2008, describes some of the details about how to do this. Both reports are offered with no obligation.