In Cary Friday, homebuyer Kristi Galati was looking at a three-thousand plus square foot house with five bedrooms and four baths in Cary's upscale MacGregor Downs.
"I was told about this home that's going up for auction and I thought, you know, why not just go look at it and see. It's in a great neighborhood," she said.
Galati and her family are among those who made Raleigh-Cary the fastest growing region in the nation last year. They moved here from Kentucky in December, rented a house and are ready to buy.
"I don't want to pay rent anymore and so we are looking everywhere in the Cary-Raleigh area," she said.
Even though she's new in town, Galati knows that right now the Triangle is a buyer's market. But while she figures she can get a good price on the regular market she couldn't ignore the allure of another segment.
"Because in the news it says there are so many foreclosures everywhere, I thought, you know what, I'm going to look into that too," she said.
Then she heard about this weekend's auction at the Raleigh Civic Center. She checked it out and found there were 180 on the block - some of them really nice. The Cary house she was looking at Friday went for 595,000 the last time it sold. The tax value is 530,000. It's listed for auction with a starting bid of 280,000.
Even at a significantly higher price than that it could still be a steal if Galati decides to join the bidding. For more information on the auction, go to http://www.auction.com
