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A photo of Main Street in Fuquay-Varina.
Town of Fuquay-Varina.
The Triangle ZIP code ranked among the nation’s “hottest” for home sales isn’t in Raleigh or Durham.
Instead, it’s in the once-sleepy tobacco and farming town, Fuquay-Varina.
ZIP Code 27526 ranked No. 20 out of 41,704 ZIP codes for most sought-after neighborhoods in 2024, according to a new study from Opendoor, down from No. 18 last year. The hard-to-pronounce Fuquay-Varina (FEW-kway vuh-REE-nuh) is about 16 miles southwest of Raleigh in Wake County.
“Over the past three years, we’ve seen people choose to move away from city centers in favor of tighter-knit communities, but still live close enough to commute and be close to the action,” the real estate platform said in the release. “This year’s most popular areas are known for being fast-growing cities with plenty of new development, with healthy job growth.”
Opendoor analyzed data from listing services and ranked ZIP codes by how many homes went into contract within 90 days of listing.
The top two were in the Houston area, with Katy (77493) at No. 1 and Cypress (77433) at No. 2.
Here’s the complete list of 2024’s most popular ZIP codes:
Katy, TX - 77493
Cypress, TX - 77433
San Antonio, TX - 78253
New Braunfels, TX - 78130
Summerville, SC - 29486
Forney, TX – 75126
Yukon, OK - 73099
Clarksville, TN - 37042
Parrish, FL - 34219
Kyle, TX - 78640
Davenport, FL - 33837
McKinney, TX - 75071
Winter Garden, FL - 34787
Saint Augustine, FL - 32092
Haines City, FL - 33844
Palm Coast, FL - 32137
Venice, FL - 34293
Maricopa, AZ - 85138
Ocala, FL - 34473
Fuquay-Varina, NC - 27526
Opendoor’s “hottest” ZIP codes for 2024. Opendoor
Fuquay-Varina’s growth spurt
Settled in the early 1800s and first known as “Piney Woods,” Fuquay-Varina started out as two side-by-side towns: Fuquay Springs (along Main Street) and Varina (around Broad Street station).
In the early 1900s, tobacco farmers began migrating. Eventually, in 1963, the towns merged and combined their names, according to the town’s website.
Today it’s one of the fastest-growing towns in North Carolina. Its population grew nearly 27%, to 43,817, from 2020 to 2023, census data found. In recent months, the town has approved two multi-million-dollar projects, paving the way for more retail, restaurants and over 1,000 homes in this corner of Wake County.
In Fuquay-Varina’s ZIP code 27526, the market is “somewhat competitive,” according to the latest data from Redfin. In November 2024, the median sale price (where half cost less and half cost more) for all home types was $460,000. That was up 1.2% year over year.
On average, homes sold in around 36 days on the market last year compared to 42 days in 2023.
There were 358 homes sold in November of last year, up from 357 sold in November 2023.
On the Market
Keep up with the latest Triangle real estate news by subscribing to On the Market, The News & Observer's free weekly real estate newsletter. Look for it in your inbox every Thursday morning. Sign up here.
This story was originally published January 13, 2025 at 2:54 PM.
Chantal Allam covers real estate for the The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. She writes about commercial and residential real estate, covering everything from deals, expansions and relocations to major trends and events. She previously covered the Triangle technology sector and has been a journalist on three continents.
