Sell Your Commercial Property In Raleigh–Durham, NC

Two metros, one rental market

The Census Bureau treats the Triangle as two metro areas. The Raleigh-Cary metro has 1,487,302 residents and a median household income of $100,103; the Durham-Chapel Hill metro has 601,724 residents and a median household income of $83,500. For an apartment owner they behave like one market: tenants commute across county lines, and buyers routinely compare buildings in Raleigh and Durham side by side.

The link between them is Research Triangle Park, which reports more than 385 companies and over 55,000 people across 7,000 acres. Around it are three research universities and their hospitals. Duke reports about 40,000 employees, UNC anchors Chapel Hill in Orange County, and NC State sits in Raleigh. WakeMed lists 973 licensed beds in FY2025, 587 of them at its Raleigh Campus. Those employers spread renter demand across income levels, from hospital support staff to researchers and software engineers.

Rents and renter share by area

Across both metros, the ACS counts 285,635 renter households out of 822,551 occupied homes, a 34.7% renter share. Renting is concentrated in the two core cities. Raleigh has a 49.3% renter share and a median gross rent of $1,572. Durham has a 47.7% share and a median rent of $1,508. Cary has a lower renter share, 33.4%, but the highest median rent, $1,738, and a median household income of $134,905.

Cost burden follows the same pattern. In Raleigh, 50.5% of renter households pay 30% or more of income on rent and utilities; in Durham, 46.3%; in Cary, 36.9%. At the county level, Wake County has a 35.9% renter share and a median gross rent of $1,623, while Durham County has a 44.5% renter share and a median rent of $1,508. Owners in Raleigh and Durham therefore depend on tenants with less room for increases, while Cary's tenant base has more room but there are fewer buildings to buy or sell.

The table compares the two metros on the figures buyers and lenders look at first, including HUD's Raleigh-Cary and Durham-Chapel Hill FY2026 Fair Market Rents:

HUD's efficiency and four-bedroom FMRs are $1,524 and $2,936 in Raleigh-Cary and $1,417 and $2,527 in Durham-Chapel Hill, so the gap between the two areas is widest for large units. Durham-Chapel Hill rents less at the median but has a higher renter share and slightly higher cost burden. The two-bedroom FMRs differ by only $39, so voucher payment standards are close across the region even though market rents are not.

The apartment stock

Across both metros, 182,786 of 889,410 housing units, or 20.6%, are in buildings with five or more units. The Raleigh-Cary metro has 123,986 such units, including 26,213 in 5–9 unit buildings, 36,341 in 10–19 unit buildings, 27,446 in 20–49 unit buildings and 33,986 in buildings of 50 or more. The Durham-Chapel Hill metro has 58,800, including 13,392, 19,731, 9,890 and 15,787 in the same size bands. In both, buildings of 50+ units make up a little over a quarter of the apartment inventory, and the 10–19 unit band is the single largest.

The stock is relatively young compared with the state as a whole. The median structure was built in 2000 in the Raleigh-Cary metro and in 1993 in Durham-Chapel Hill, against 1991 statewide. In the core cities, the median year built is 1997 in Raleigh and 1995 in Durham, so Raleigh's housing is older than its metro's while Durham's is slightly newer than its own. Garner, south of Raleigh in Wake County, is a separate town whose buildings are taxed by Wake County and the town rather than by Raleigh.

Most of the region's apartments sit in three places. Raleigh has 78,614 units in 5+ unit buildings, Durham 42,125 and Cary 17,788, a combined 138,527, or 75.8% of all such units in the two metros. The same three places hold 183,820 renter households, about 64.4% of the region's total. For a seller, that concentration means most comparable sales, most active buyers and most competing listings are in those three cities, and buildings in smaller towns often trade at a discount for thinner demand.

Property taxes in Wake and Durham counties

North Carolina has no separate tax class for rental housing: G.S. 105-284 requires assessment at true value. County rates differ. Wake County's FY2027 adopted budget raised its rate 2 cents to 53.71 cents per $100. Durham County's FY2026-27 rate is 57.92 cents, up 2.5 cents, according to Durham County's rate tables, which also list the FY2026-27 city rates: 43.71 cents in Durham, 37.20 cents in Raleigh and 36.75 cents in Cary. That puts the combined rate at about 90.91 cents inside Raleigh's Wake County portion and $1.0163 inside the City of Durham. On a $4 million building, the difference is roughly $4,300 a year.

City rates moved in different directions this year. Raleigh's rate rose from 35.50 to 37.20 cents and Cary's from 34.00 to 36.75 cents, while Durham's held at 43.71 cents. Downtown Durham buildings inside the Business Improvement District pay a city-and-district rate of 50.71 cents instead. A buyer comparing a Raleigh building with a downtown Durham one will see both differences in the underwriting, so it pays to show actual tax bills rather than rates.

Revaluation timing differs too. Wake County's next revaluation takes effect January 1, 2027, replacing values effective January 1, 2024. Notices are expected by January 22, 2027, the planned appeal deadline is April 30, 2027, and the county intends to revalue every two years after that. Durham County's rates dropped sharply between FY2024-25 and FY2025-26, from 79.87 to 55.42 cents, the kind of change that typically follows a reappraisal. State law under G.S. 105-286 requires a reappraisal at least every eighth year, and a sale does not trigger one.

The deed excise tax under G.S. 105-228.30 is $1 per $500 of price in both counties, or $8,000 on a $4 million sale.

Landlord rules across the region

Every city in the Triangle works under the same state rules. G.S. 42-14.1 prohibits local rent control and, since 2024, local mandates to accept federal housing vouchers. G.S. 42-51 caps deposits at 1.5 months' rent for month-to-month tenancies and two months' rent for longer terms, and G.S. 42-52 requires an itemized accounting within 30 days after move-out, or 60 days with an interim accounting. G.S. 160D-1207 bars general rental registration programs, allowing permits only for properties with repeated verified violations or high crime and disorder, with fees capped at $500 a year.

That uniformity simplifies a portfolio sale that spans Raleigh and Durham: the legal framework is the same on both sides of the county line, and the differences buyers price are taxes, age and location.

What this means if you own a building here

• Wake County owners selling in 2027 should expect buyers to wait for or estimate new values; Durham County owners should confirm their county's own reappraisal schedule with the assessor.
• The combined tax rate is higher in Durham than in Raleigh, while median rents are lower, so per-unit pricing usually reflects both.
• The 10–19 unit band is the largest in both metros, so mid-size sellers face the most competition and benefit most from clean financials.

Skyline Capital Investments buys 5+ unit buildings across Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Garner. You can see our individual pages for Raleigh and Durham, estimate value with our apartment building value calculator, or see how we make offers on the sell your apartment building page.