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Lee County, North Carolina

Single-family vs. condo trends, market pressure signals, and 5-year price history. Source: Redfin.

Median Sale Price
$323,710
+37.7% YoY
Active Inventory
295
Days on Market
53 days
Price Drops
41.4%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)
Single-Family Median
$340,000
+0.1% YoY
Condo / Co-op Median
$150,000
+32.7% YoY
SFR vs. Condo YoY Gap
-32.7%
condos outperforming SFR
DOM: SFR vs. Condo
50d / 44d
SFR / Condo

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin
Months of Supply
3.5 mo
Balanced

Inventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.

Sale-to-List Ratio
98.2%
At asking

Median closing price ÷ original list price. Above 100% = homes routinely closing above asking.

% Sold Above List
12%
Buyer-favorable

Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.

What does your sqft target cost in Lee County, North Carolina?

$170/sqft median (Redfin)
+$0 adj
+$0 adj
optional
Estimated price
$339,943
Near median (+5% vs median)
Region median
$323,710
all homes
Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?
$600,000
≈ 3,530 sqft
$1,200,000
≈ 7,060 sqft
$2,000,000
≈ 11,767 sqft
$5,000,000
≈ 29,417 sqft

Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.

Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested

15-yr rolling history · S&P 500
Property type:
Upfront capital committed (both paths): $74K = 20% down + 3% closing on a $324K home
BUY + OWN
Median ending wealth $284K $174K real
Net gain on $74K upfront: $210K
Range: $284K → $284K
Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $324K asset comes from the 20% down.
RENT + INVEST
Median ending portfolio $746K $551K real
Net gain on $264K contributed: $482K
Range: $348K → $1.90M
Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $264K total.
Median wealth delta: $462K in favor of RENT + INVEST
What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
WindowBuy wealthBuy gainRent wealthRent gainWealth delta
2011–2025$284K$210K$1.09M$823K$803K rent
2010–2024$284K$210K$1.11M$846K$825K rent
2009–2023$284K$210K$1.06M$797K$777K rent
2008–2022$284K$210K$749K$485K$465K rent
2007–2021$284K$210K$971K$707K$687K rent
2006–2020$284K$210K$830K$566K$546K rent
2005–2019$284K$210K$746K$482K$462K rent
2004–2018$284K$210K$615K$351K$331K rent

Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).

Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.

Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.

This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.

Market Pressure Signals

Derived from Redfin trend
Inventory vs. Long-Term Avg
+30.8%
surplus — buyer leverage
DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg
-18.4%
currently 53 days
Long-Term Avg Inventory
226
Long-Term Avg DOM
65 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency
State HPI YoY
+2.4%
positive — appreciating
State HPI vs. Peak
0.0%
at or near peak peak 2026-04-01
National Mortgage Delinquency
1.86%
benchmark — 2026-04-01 county-grain delinquency requires paid data

State-grain HPI YoY + drawdown from peak is the cleanest free price-stress proxy. The national delinquency rate gives the macro mortgage-stress backdrop. True county-level mortgage delinquency lives in paid datasets (MBA NDS, CoreLogic LP).

Getting a Mortgage Here

CFPB HMDA 2025
Applications Denied
21.9%
1.9 pts easier than North Carolina
Loans Actually Made
1,786
501 turned down
Average Loan Made
$281,607
what lenders here actually wrote
National Denial Rate
23.4%
benchmark — all 51 states

Every lender above a size threshold has to report each application and what they did with it. The denial rate here counts only applications a lender actually ruled on — approved or denied. Files the applicant withdrew, and files closed as incomplete, are left out of both halves, so this runs higher than tables that bury them in the denominator. Compare every state and county →

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income
Value / Income
5.1×
overvalued
Median Household Income
$63,060
Census ACS B19013

Historically affordable markets sit at 3–4× income; over 5× is stretched, over 6× is severely overvalued. Lower ratios point to bargain opportunities.

Housing Stock & Owners

Census ACS 5-year (B19013, B01003, B25002, B25003, B25034, B25007)
Population
64,565
total residents
Total Housing Units
26,854
all units, occupied + vacant
Vacancy Rate
8.2%
tight
Homeownership Rate
66.0%
of occupied units owner-occupied
Boomer Owners (65+)
22.1%
of homeowner households
Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)
7.0%
of homeowner households
Pre-1949 Housing Stock
6.1%
structures built before 1949

When boomer-owner share is high, expect more inventory hitting the market over the next decade as homes transition. High vacancy + high old-stock often signals deferred-maintenance markets where buyers can negotiate.

Net Migration (IRS Tax Returns)

IRS Statistics of Income — Migration Data
Net Migration
+212
gaining people (2022–2023)
Inbound Returns
1,286
2,358 people moved in
Outbound Returns
1,125
2,146 people moved out
Net Returns
+161
household-filer basis

Top 5 Origins (where movers came from)

  1. Wake, North Carolina — 385 returns
  2. Harnett, North Carolina — 311 returns
  3. Chatham, North Carolina — 150 returns
  4. Cumberland, North Carolina — 127 returns
  5. Moore, North Carolina — 125 returns

Top 5 Destinations (where movers went)

  1. Harnett, North Carolina — 436 returns
  2. Wake, North Carolina — 210 returns
  3. Chatham, North Carolina — 117 returns
  4. Moore, North Carolina — 109 returns
  5. Cumberland, North Carolina — 103 returns

IRS Statistics of Income tracks county-to-county migration via tax-return change-of-address. Net migration uses the exemption count (a proxy for people, including dependents). True net flow can lag by 1–2 years vs. real-time movements.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)
Inbound Movers (1 yr)
4,038
6.32% of pop. — moved here from outside the county
From Other States
835
1.31% of pop. — interstate inbound
From Abroad
234
moved into the county from outside the U.S.
Same House 1 Year Ago
89%
stable residents

Census ACS asks where people lived 1 year ago, so this counts inbound movers but does not show outbound — true net migration would require IRS SOI parsing.

Trends

Up to 5 years of monthly data

Median Sale Price

Trailing 12 months

Active Inventory

Trailing 12 months

Days on Market

Trailing 12 months

Looking for state-level data? See North Carolina statewide stats →

Verify any number on this page: data sources, formulas, and cross-references →