The Best Value Properties in Durham, NC

☕️ 5 min read By Noah Blumberg


Durham, North Carolina often gets lumped together with nearby cities Raleigh (25 miles away) and Chapel Hill (11 miles away), but there's a lot of attention focusing on Durham specifically when it comes to real estate. Durham is considered to be one of the hottest real estate markets in the country and one of the best places to live. Durham is also considered to be one of the best places to buy a vacation rental property, so pretty much anyone looking to buy will want to consider it.

The Properties

The Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill area is often referred to as the Research Triangle due to the major universities and the medical and technology employers in the area. Buying in Durham, allows for access to all three cities which makes the area particularly attractive. With so many students in the area, rentals promise to have durable demand for the foreseeable future. If you're looking for some numbers, RentCafe lists the Research Triangle, aka the Piedmont Triad in this article, as one of the most sought after rental markets in the U.S. This may not be slowing down any time soon as Durham's population is expected to double in the next 25 years.

Durham has made a couple lists of the "hottest real estate markets", so let's look at what that means. Employment gains in Durham have been strong despite the initial downturn from the pandemic, so real estate and rentals have strong built-in demand. Zillow says that nearby Raleigh will have the second highest home value appreciation in the country in 2022 which bodes well for the entire area. Durham may also be insulated from larger economic issues too. If the stock market trends lower, certain markets will be affected more than others as buyers have less cash available. For better or for worse Durham tends not to be as tied to the stock market's fortunes as other U.S. cities.

As one of the hottest areas for real estate, Durham must have seen some of the highest home value appreciation in recent years, right? Wrong. Durham has seen appreciation of 17.5% in the last year which is 105th out of 264 cities ranked by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Perhaps there's still more room to grow? Or perhaps Durham's more stable rental and employment situation simply supports a more steady growth trend for real estate property values. For this year, realtor.com predicts a 4.2% increase in home values.

All this demand has driven prices up as you might assume. Florida Atlantic University's School of Business calculates that Durham real estate properties are overpriced by 40.9%, the 17th most out of 100 in the list. Given that all but one locale on the list is considered overpriced, perhaps we are in a nationwide real estate bubble? With a chronic shortage in the housing supply and generational demand coming from millenials, experts think not yet. However, rising interest rates and high prices should cool things off at some point.

The Properties

Our #1 property is a modest home on a tremendous 40+ acre lot. Aside from appreciation, this could be a great opportunity for the right buyer depending on the options for the land as there are 280,000 people in Durham alone, representing a lot of demand for anything new that could be built there.

If you're looking for a smaller initial investment, property #6 could be a good fit. It's a good sized 2000+ square foot home on a large half-acre lot. At about half the median price of a real estate property in Durham, this home is attractive and in good shape. The discount appears to be coming from a managable amount of rehab work.

Reading Resources

Durham Housing Market Data from Housing Tides
Realtor's 2022 National Housing Forecast
USA’s 10 Best Places to Buy Vacation Rental Property in 2022 from Lodgify
From Zillow, Why Tampa will be 2022's Hottest Market
PricewaterhouseCooper's Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2022
The Business School at Florida Atlantic University's Beracha and Johnson Housing Market Ranking
Federal Housing Finance Agency's Change in FHFA Metropolitan Area House Price Indexes
Livability's 2021 Top 100 Best Places to Live In America
Livability's 8 Reasons to Move to Durham, NC
U.S. News and World Report looks at Raleigh and Durham
Redfin Looks at the Durham Housing Market
The Motley Fool's 10 Best Cities to Invest in Rental Properties in 2022

Here are the top 25 properties. To see them all or get a list for another city, order a custom list!
Median List PriceMedian SqftMedian Lot Size(SqFt)Median HOA Fee
$452,2401,7237,318$189
Score**PropertyZipX**TypeBedsSqFtLot Size(sqft)Price
54.63

2523 Hamlin Rd
1.00single family315671,770,148$1,050,000
40.42

4801 Pleasant Green Rd
1.24single family1150311,611,720$2,795,000
37.02

2600 Snow Hill Rd
1.22single family44048506,167$957,000
29.66

6024 Craig Rd
1.22mobile3243592,565$205,000
25.18

5905 Altrada Dr
1.22single family3229625,003$225,000
22.70

4610 Cole Mill Rd
1.24single family3129265,340$220,000
21.09

116 Crestview Dr
1.22single family4272439,640$399,990
19.09

3775 Guess Rd Apt 8
1.24condo213441,568$175,000
18.30

4106 Berini Dr
1.24single family4353921,780$545,000
17.87

2129 Curry Meadow Way
1.19single family639171$670,990
17.64

3006 Pump Station Ln
1.22single family3269456,628$495,000
17.30

3829 E Us 70 Hwy
1.19single family256038,768$129,900
17.29

4409 Randall Rd
1.20single family5259322,477$450,000
16.88

1602 Cultivar Ln
1.22single family531068,059$505,000
16.23

2919 Kanewood Dr
1.20single family5202210,890$345,630
16.14

1302 Farm Pond Trail
1.19single family432033,789$495,990
16.00

6111 Kelvin Dr
1.22single family2178625,700$260,000
15.73

3817 Passenger Place
1.19single family426977,318$467,490
15.23

1206 Little Acres Dr
1.22single family5265714,810$520,000
15.16

3234 Dearborn Dr
1.00single family295218,513$125,000
15.02

3817 Passenger Place
1.19single family425187,318$460,490
14.58

1011 Epiphany Rd
1.43condo327122,178$540,000
14.50

7005 Russell Rd
1.22single family3136740,946$304,000
14.22

612 Minnestott Way
1.00condo321721,655$310,000
14.14

5310 Russell Rd
1.22single family4216523,087$430,000
*This table shows only few basic data points. Rankings are based on 22 data points and 7 calculations per property.**Find explanations of ZipX aka zip multiplier and Score here.