Raleigh, NC: A Top Local Market to Watch in 2027
The Raleigh, NC, metropolitan area has for years been one of the fastest-growing market areas in the United States. The area continues to attract new residents in a big way, as the Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) added 178,338 new residents from 2020 to 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data and in 2025 saw an estimated 81 new residents moving into the area every day. Population growth at this level helped push estimated electrical sales through 2Q 2026 to $883.9 million, a +4.2% YOY increase.
Over the past year or two, this growth has been supercharged by billions of dollars in large project construction. WakeMed recently announced plans to invest $919 million in several new hospitals in the Raleigh area; Novo Nordisk is investing $4.1 billion in a new biotech facility in Clayton, NC; Vulcan Elements is building a $1-billion, 1-million-sq-ft rare earth manufacturing facility in Benson, NC; and Fugifilm Biotechnologies opened a $3.2-billion plant in Holly Springs, NC, in Sept. 2025. In addition, the Catalyst BioCampus is expanding with new biotech facilities.
There’s some large construction projects in downtown Raleigh, too, with the $400-million expansion of the Raleigh convention center expected to begin in Nov. 2026; the $363-million, 29-story Omni Raleigh hotel that broke ground in April; and the ongoing $310-million expansion of the Lenova Center arena.
While single-family building permits were off slightly through June, the Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA still saw builders pull 6,253 permits, the 11th highest total year-to-date through June in more than 300 metros. The metro’s multi-family construction was strong, too, and the 4,224 multi-family permits pulled YTD through June ranked the metro #10 when compared to all other U.S. MSAs.
SALES ESTIMATES
2Q 2026 Total Sales Estimate: $883.9 million
2026 Electrical Contractor Est. ($ Millions): $611.3 million
2026 Estimated Industrial Sales: $95.8 million
POPULATION GROWTH
2025 Population Estimate: 1,595,720
2020-2025 Population # Change: 178,338
2020-2025 Population % Change: 12.6%
New Residents per day: 80
BUILDING PERMITS
June 2026 - Single-family (SF) permits: 6,253 permits
# Change SF YOY: (20) permits
% Change SF YOY: -0.3%
June 2026 -Multi-family (MF) permits: 4,224 permits
# Change MF YOY: 1,428 permits
% Change MF YOY: 51.1%
Electrical Wholesaling's Top 10 Local Markets to Watch gives you a taste of the mountain of electrical market sales estimates and other local market data available at Electrical Marketing newsletter for just $99 per year. This data includes:
- Local market sales estimates, building permits and population data for more than 300 other Metropolitan Statistical areas
- The Electrical Price Index (EPI) - A monthly compilation of pricing trends for more than 20 key electrical product groups
- Annual product sales estimates from 16 key electrical products
Sources of market data: Local market data collected by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and county. Sales estimates developed with sales-per-employee multipliers from Electrical Wholesaling’s Market Planning Guide ($83572 per electrical contractor employee and $2,7289 per industrial employee) and employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Building permit and population data downloaded from U.S. Census Bureau website.
About the Author
Jim Lucy
Editor-in-Chief
Over the past 40-plus years, hundreds of Jim’s articles have been published in Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing newsletter on topics such as the impact of new competitors on the electrical market’s channels of distribution, energy-efficient lighting and renewables, and local market economics. In addition to his published work, Jim regularly gives presentations on these topics to C-suite executives, industry groups and investment analysts.
He recently launched a new subscription-based data product for Electrical Marketing that offers electrical sales potential estimates and related market data for more than 300 metropolitan areas, and in 1999 he published his first book, “The Electrical Marketer’s Survival Guide” for electrical industry executives looking for an overview of key market trends.
While managing Electrical Wholesaling’s editorial operations, Jim and the publication’s staff won several Jesse H. Neal awards for editorial excellence, the highest honor in the business press, and numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He has a master’s degree in Communications and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N.J. (now Rowan University).