Renting vs buying in Raleigh
Raleigh's home values and its rents are both soft at once, and the mortgage rate has risen through both of them. Here is the arithmetic, including the property tax figure that takes a paragraph to explain and the mortgage insurance that stops in the middle of the model, and then the part the arithmetic misses.
Calculator
The short answer
Zillow puts the typical home in the city of Raleigh at $428,671 in August 2026, down 1.7% on the year, and a three-bedroom apartment rents for an average of $2,028. Run those against each other at a 2% appreciation assumption and the answer turns on how long you stay and on the mortgage rate, which was 7.03% on the 24 September survey against 6.30% a year earlier.
Neither side of the market is running away. Home values are down slightly and condominiums by more, and the two rent indexes cited below cannot agree on whether rents are rising or falling: RentCafe has the average asking rent 1.61% lower than a year earlier and Zillow's rent index 0.45% higher. A renter here is not being pushed out by rising rents, and a buyer is not racing a rising price. North Carolina law guarantees nothing either way: the state forbids Raleigh from enacting any form of rent control.
Getting in is cheap and getting out is not. A buyer pays no transfer tax at all, because North Carolina's excise tax is charged to the seller, so closing runs to about $2,050 plus lender fees. Selling costs about 6% once commission, the excise tax and the attorney are counted, or roughly $25,720 on this house. The friction is almost all at the exit, which is the shape that punishes a short stay.
The calculator below opens with real Raleigh figures and every one of them is editable. Two warnings: the property tax rate is set to 0.87% of market value, not the 0.9091% the County and City levy against a 2024 assessment, because this model multiplies a present-day price; and below 20% down the owner is charged private mortgage insurance every month until the balance reaches 78% of the price, at which point it stops. Both are explained in the questions below.
Your situation
Compare like for like: the rent on somewhere you would actually be willing to live, not the cheapest listing in the city. Drop the price to around $300,000 and the rent to a one-bedroom figure to compare apartments instead, and put the condo fee in under Assumptions.
20.0% down. The renter starts with this plus closing costs: $87,785: invested instead.
The single biggest lever. Buying costs a lot to enter and a lot to exit, and only time amortizes that away.
Assumptions: every one of them editable
Raleigh's typical home value is down 1.7% year over year and the condominium index is down 8.0%, at $270,056 against $440,555 single-family. Try a negative number for a condo, and remember Wake revalues on 1 January 2027.
What the renter earns on the down payment they never spent. This is the comparison's hidden lever. A renter who spends it instead of investing it does far worse than this model shows.
North Carolina has no rent control, and no city or county in the state is allowed to introduce any: state law forbids a county or city from enacting or enforcing any ordinance that regulates the rent charged for private residential property. Nothing caps an increase at renewal, and the only protection in an ordinary tenancy is the notice period in the lease. The rent-growth figure here is a forecast in the fullest sense. There is no legal ceiling behind it.
Roofs, furnaces, fences, hail. Averaged out it is a real cost even in the years nothing breaks.
Zero for a house with no association, which in Raleigh is the minority: the Census Bureau counts more than half of the city's owners paying an association fee, at a median of $114 a month. A condominium fee carries the building's insurance, roof and reserves and runs well above that, and a downtown tower above that again.
Commission and legal fees, charged against the price you eventually sell at. The owner's net worth below is after this comes off.
Net worth, side by side
The buyer's line is home value minus what is still owed minus the cost of selling, plus anything they invested in months when owning was cheaper. The renter's line is one portfolio: the down payment and closing costs they never spent, plus the monthly difference whenever renting is cheaper.
Show the year-by-year figures
| Year | Owner | Renter | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $71,537 | $107,451 | −$35,914 |
| 2 | $83,473 | $127,864 | −$44,392 |
| 3 | $95,842 | $149,058 | −$53,216 |
| 4 | $108,668 | $171,067 | −$62,399 |
| 5 | $121,976 | $193,928 | −$71,952 |
| 6 | $135,791 | $217,678 | −$81,887 |
| 7 | $150,141 | $242,359 | −$92,217 |
| 8 | $165,056 | $268,011 | −$102,955 |
| 9 | $180,567 | $294,678 | −$114,112 |
| 10 | $196,707 | $322,408 | −$125,701 |
| 11 | $213,512 | $351,247 | −$137,735 |
| 12 | $231,020 | $381,247 | −$150,226 |
| 13 | $249,273 | $412,460 | −$163,187 |
| 14 | $268,314 | $444,942 | −$176,629 |
| 15 | $288,188 | $478,752 | −$190,564 |
| 16 | $308,946 | $513,951 | −$205,005 |
| 17 | $330,641 | $550,602 | −$219,962 |
| 18 | $353,329 | $588,774 | −$235,445 |
| 19 | $377,070 | $628,535 | −$251,465 |
| 20 | $401,930 | $669,962 | −$268,031 |
| 21 | $427,978 | $713,130 | −$285,152 |
| 22 | $455,286 | $758,121 | −$302,835 |
| 23 | $483,935 | $805,021 | −$321,086 |
| 24 | $514,009 | $853,919 | −$339,910 |
| 25 | $545,597 | $904,908 | −$359,311 |
| 26 | $578,797 | $958,088 | −$379,291 |
| 27 | $613,713 | $1,013,562 | −$399,849 |
| 28 | $650,454 | $1,071,437 | −$420,983 |
| 29 | $689,139 | $1,131,827 | −$442,688 |
| 30 | $729,889 | $1,194,847 | −$464,957 |
- The rate is fixed for the life of the loan, so there is no renewal to model, but nothing here credits you for refinancing into a lower one either.
- Neither household is credited with tax on their investments, and the buyer's gain on a principal residence is tax-free while the renter's portfolio may not be.
An estimate from published figures, not a lender quote.
Questions people actually ask
Is it worth buying in Raleigh right now?
It is closer than the prices alone suggest, because both sides of the comparison are soft at once. Zillow's typical home value for the city was $428,671 in August 2026, down 1.7% on the year, and condominiums were down 8.0%. Average asking rents are roughly flat: RentCafe has them 1.61% lower than a year earlier and Zillow's observed rent index has them 0.45% higher. At 7.03% on a 30-year loan, the mortgage on that house with 20% down is $2,288 a month before tax and insurance, against a three-bedroom apartment at about $2,028. The rate is doing more work in that gap than the price is: it was 6.30% a year earlier.
How long do you have to stay for buying to beat renting in Raleigh?
Longer than the low closing costs suggest, because the cost of selling is where North Carolina takes its money. Getting in is cheap: no transfer tax for the buyer, a closing attorney at around $900, an owner's title policy at about $500, an inspection and the register of deeds, roughly $2,050. Getting out costs about 6%: roughly 5.5% of commission, the seller's 0.2% excise tax, and the attorney at that end. On a $428,671 house that is about $25,720. On the defaults below owning never catches renting at all: the renter is ahead in every one of the 30 years the model runs. The friction alone is a shorter and different answer: at a 2% appreciation assumption those two ends take about 3.4 years to earn back, almost all of it the cost of selling. Change the price, the rent or the appreciation rate and the calculator moves the crossover with them.
Does North Carolina have rent control?
No, and Raleigh is not permitted to introduce it. N.C.G.S. § 42-14.1 forbids any county or city from enacting, maintaining or enforcing an ordinance that regulates the rent charged for private residential property. There is no guideline increase, no cap at renewal and no vacancy control. Asking rents here have been roughly flat for a year on both of the indexes this page cites, which is a market condition rather than a protection. If you are renting long-term, set the rent-growth input above the 2% default and see what it does to the answer.
What are the closing costs on a Raleigh home?
For a buyer, low, and for the same reason as anywhere in North Carolina. The state's excise tax on conveyances is $1 per $500 of price: 0.2%, or $857 on a $428,671 house, but the statute puts it on the transferor, so the seller pays it. What a buyer pays is the closing attorney, which state law effectively requires, at $700 to $1,200; an owner's title insurance policy at around $500 on North Carolina's promulgated rates; a home inspection at $400 to $700; and the Wake County Register of Deeds, about $64 to record a deed of trust and $26 for a deed. Then the lender's own charges: origination, appraisal, credit report, and prepaid interest and escrow. The $2,050 default above covers the first four and leaves out the lender's, because those vary by lender rather than by state.
How much do you need for a down payment in Raleigh?
Legally, nothing sets a floor: this is a lender's decision rather than a rule. Conventional loans start at 3% down and FHA at 3.5%. On a $428,671 house, 3% is $12,860 and 20% is $85,735. What the low end costs you is private mortgage insurance: at 3% down, about $301 a month until the balance reaches 78% of the price, which takes 12.6 years and about $45,500. At 5% down it is $227 a month and $32,300. There is also help. The state housing agency's NC Home Advantage Mortgage carries up to 3% of the loan in assistance and its 1st Home Advantage program $15,000 for first-time buyers and veterans, and the City of Raleigh lends first-time buyers at or below 80% of area median income up to $45,000 at 0%, or up to $60,000 in designated areas, with price caps of $384,750 and $450,000.
Why does this page say 0.87% property tax when the Raleigh tax rate is 0.91%?
Because the rate is charged on an assessment and the assessment is not quite the market. For fiscal 2027 Raleigh levies 90.91 cents per $100 of assessed value: 53.71 cents to Wake County, up 2.0 cents, and 37.20 cents to the City, up 1.7 cents, against values set on 1 January 2024. The Department of Revenue's sales assessment ratio study measured Wake's assessments at 95.39% of sale prices a year later and published an effective county rate of 0.4933% against the nominal 0.5171% on exactly that arithmetic. Apply the same ratio to the combined rate and you get 0.87% of market value, which is what a calculator starting from a market price has to use. The gap is small here and it will not grow for long: Wake revalues again on 1 January 2027 and every two years after that. One exception by address: inside the downtown municipal service district the bill carries a further 6.8 cents per $100, about $291 a year on a house at this price.
Does this calculator favor renting or buying?
Neither, by construction. Both households start with exactly the same cash. Whichever of them has the cheaper month invests the difference. Most calculators credit only the renter with that, which quietly tilts every result toward renting. The buyer's net worth is also shown after the cost of selling, so it is money they could actually walk away with rather than a paper figure. Private mortgage insurance is charged to the owner month by month and then removed the month the lender is legally required to drop it, rather than being averaged away.
What is the calculator not accounting for?
Tax, mainly, and in the United States that cuts both ways. Mortgage interest and property tax are deductible if you itemize, but the standard deduction is high enough that most buyers at this price do not: first-year interest on the benchmark loan is about $24,000 and property tax about $3,717. A principal residence's gain is excluded up to $250,000 single or $500,000 married under section 121, and the renter's portfolio is not. None of that is modeled, and none of it is advice. Two Raleigh-specific things it also cannot price: the 1 January 2027 revaluation, which will move bills unevenly across the city depending on how each neighborhood's values have moved since 2024, and the association fee that more than half of Raleigh's owners pay, which is zero in the default above and should not be for most subdivisions.
Which figures here are estimates
The prices, rents, tax rates and the state's own assessment-ratio figures above come from published sources, each one listed below with the period it describes. These do not:
- The condominium fee, at $350 a month: the Census Bureau publishes a median association fee of $114 for Raleigh owners who pay one, but that median is mostly suburban associations rather than buildings
- Home insurance at $210 a month, between the two published Raleigh averages of $2,420 and $2,850 a year
- The utilities an owner pays over a renter, at $130 a month
- Maintenance at 1% of the home's value a year
- Every forward-looking rate: appreciation, rent growth, cost inflation and the return on the invested difference
- The private mortgage insurance rate, which is priced per borrower by credit score rather than published as a schedule
If you want the payment side on its own, with the biweekly plan, prepayments and the month mortgage insurance stops, the mortgage calculator covers it in more detail. To work out where rather than whether, start with the neighborhood guides.
Sources
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $428,671 for the city of Raleigh in August 2026, $436,286 in August 2025, so a fall of 1.7% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $440,555 in the city of Raleigh in August 2026, down 1.5% on the year, A typical condominium value of $270,056 in the same month, down 8.0% on the year, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
- Raleigh, NC average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh apartment rent of $1,588, down 1.61% from $1,613 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,322 studio, $1,409 one-bedroom, $1,655 two-bedroom and $2,028 three-bedroom
- Wake County tax rates, current to 2017 · Wake County Department of Tax Administration · retrieved Supports: A Wake County rate of 53.71 cents per $100 for 2026, against 51.71 cents in 2025, A City of Raleigh rate of 37.20 cents per $100 for 2026, against 35.50 cents in 2025, A Raleigh downtown municipal service district rate of 6.8 cents per $100, levied only inside the district, 2024 marked as a revaluation year
- Sales assessment ratio studies as of January 1, 2025 · North Carolina Department of Revenue, Local Government Division · retrieved Supports: Wake County last revalued in 2024, A median sales assessment ratio of 95.39% for Wake: assessed values are 95.39% of sale prices, An effective county tax rate of 0.4933% against a nominal 0.5171%, computed as rate times assessment level, A coefficient of dispersion of 8.64 for Wake, Wake's next reappraisal scheduled for 2027
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier, Rates for first-lien prime conventional conforming home purchase mortgages with a loan-to-value of 80%, which is the 20% down payment the hub's payment figure assumes
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,577 for the city of Raleigh in August 2026, up 0.45% from $1,570 a year earlier
- Wake County commissioners adopt $2.28 billion fiscal year 2027 budget · Wake County · retrieved Supports: The county property tax rate rises 2 cents to 53.71 cents per $100 for FY2027, adopted 1 June 2026
- Raleigh leaders approve budget with property tax increase · WRAL · retrieved Supports: The City of Raleigh's FY2027 budget raises the property tax rate by 1.7 cents per $100
- Wake County shortens revaluation cycle · Wake County · retrieved Supports: The last revaluation took effect on 1 January 2024, The next revaluations take effect on 1 January 2027 and 1 January 2029, and every two years after that
- Commissioner Causey negotiates settlement on Rate Bureau's homeowners' insurance request · North Carolina Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Base rate increases of 7.5% on 1 June 2025 and 7.5% on 1 June 2026 in territory 270, the cities of Durham and Raleigh, against a Rate Bureau request of 39.8%, No further rate filing before 1 June 2027
- How much is homeowners insurance in Raleigh, NC? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh premium of $2,850 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
- North Carolina homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh premium of $2,420 a year and a North Carolina average of $3,025, for $400,000 of dwelling cover
- Renters insurance in North Carolina · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh renters premium of $160 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Raleigh city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $114 among Raleigh owner-occupied units that pay one, 58,527 of 108,529 owner-occupied units, or 53.9%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
- Homebuyer assistance · City of Raleigh Housing and Neighborhoods · retrieved Supports: 0% deferred loans for first-time buyers at or below 80% of area median income, Up to $45,000 citywide on a home priced up to $389,500, and up to $60,000 in designated areas on a home up to $450,000
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Wake County
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2025 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: A population of 506,306 for Raleigh on 1 July 2025, against 467,665 at the 2020 census
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, North Carolina · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 152.263 square miles for Raleigh city, against 147.116 in the 2020 file
These are estimates built from published figures, not a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice. Rates, premiums and state and federal rules change; confirm anything you plan to act on with a mortgage professional and read the sourcing methodology.