It's funny you guys are talking about the highways in NC being built in less-populated counties, because it's spurring an extreme Real Estate boom in North Carolina. There are currently multiple deals to purchase thousands upon thousands of acres from Wilmington to Fayetteville to Jacksonville, as well as Greenville and New Bern. Tons of construction projects. Doghouses to the SE and E side of Wake County are selling for +100K, and new owners are knocking structures down in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, and Chapel to build homes that'll be worth 1,000,000 in a few months. Numerous houses are selling each day without people even looking at the house, and they're buying those properties at a price the listing. In the last 48 hours, hundreds of homes and doghouses have been sold. The latest sale price for people that closed quickly at the very end of July and beginning of August in Wake County has creeped over $400,000, exceeding prices throughout the last month by $80,000-100,000. It's crazy. Just take a look at this doghouse that was sold for $425,000.
https://www.redfin.com/NC/Raleigh/2710-Wayland-Dr-27608/home/41115484
While it's not as if Charlotte isn't growing at an impressive rate, but it just isn't as impressive as the boom on eastern side. Durhams looks poised to become an economic power player in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Everything E and SE of Greensboro is gong to be bulking up on massive transportation infrastructure spending that seeks to connect high speed railroads and expressways from Wilmington, Jacksonville, Greenville, Fayetteville, Rock Mount and Greensboro to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel, Research triangle. It also seeks to connect I95 to Raleigh, build a larger second loop around the city, and connect it to more coastal towns via the Wilson-Goldsboro Freeway. The development of infrastructure on the east coast is part of a strategy to build a major port city with manufactory facilities just inland. NC has spent capital to make infrastructure improvements in hopes of building trade ports in Wilmington and Morehead for Raleigh to transport goods, which is evidenced by the planned and newly constructed highway networks to both cities. I-87 is also going to connect Raleigh to the seaport in Norfolk. They even tried to extend a natural gas pipeline through Elizabethtown. I think in the near future, Rocky Mount and Fayetteville might actually be popping cities for travelers to pass along on their trip down I95, and all roads from the Northeast to Charlotte and Atlanta will go through Raleigh.
