The 2016 market turned out very well in the Triangle area. We ended the year with the average sale price for homes up over 5%; of course, this varies by area. My hometown of Garner for example, saw a gain of 9.1%, which is incredible. Closings ended up 10% higher than last year with Johnston County leading the race, averaging 19.4% higher than last year. Chatham and Johnston led for the most new construction, which isn't surprising with all the new homes we're seeing coming up.

And still, we ended the year 16% below average for inventory. I know we keep telling you that we need inventory—we're not kidding!

We're already starting to see some sellers come off the fence in 2017 after seeing that the equity is proven to be there for their homes. We've been really thrilled about the money we've been able to get for our sellers' homes so far this year. Buyers are really excited too because we're seeing a lot of unique homes coming on the market and some really interesting neighborhoods are coming up. I think 2017 will be a great year for both buyers and sellers.