Raleigh/Durham, NC Multifamily Market Report Q3 2026
Pipeline Holds 8.1% of Inventory as Vacancy Holds at 5.6%
Demand
Raleigh/Durham absorbed 1,113 units in Q3 2026, against 1,086 in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 5.6%, 8 bps looser than Q3 2025. Cary/Morrisville/Apex is both the tightest submarket at 5.0% vacancy and the rent growth leader at +2.4%. Trailing-12-month absorption of 5,023 units is down from 12,280 a year earlier.
Supply
Raleigh/Durham recorded 1,396 units of completions in Q3 and 5,863 over the trailing twelve months (-42% versus the prior TTM period). Units under construction equal 8.1% of inventory, concentrated in East Durham at 16.4% of its stock. Annual completions peaked at 14,976 units in 2024. Q3 deliveries were 26% below last year’s 1,877. The 17,679-unit pipeline equals about 14 quarters of absorption at the trailing pace.
Investment Market
Raleigh/Durham recorded $2.7B in sales over the trailing twelve months, +53% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $1.02B. The high-water mark in this series is $6.5B in 2021. Q3 volume is 2.0 times the prior four-quarter average and likely reflects entity-level activity from the AvalonBay and Equity Residential merger. Read volume as directional. CoStar records $425M for Q3; on that count trailing volume would be $2.1B.
Raleigh/Durham cap rates average 5.31%, up for 19 straight quarters. Pricing sits at $213k per unit.
Volume
- $2.7B TTM volume (+53% YoY)
- Q3 2026: $1.02B
- Series peak $6.5B (2021)
Pricing
- Cap rate 5.31%
- Price per unit $213k
- Caps expanding 19 quarters running
