David Divine’s 20-Year Journey on the Sale of 650 Acres in Clayton

Congratulations to David Divine, SIOR, Director of Commercial Investment Sales, for representing the seller in the sale of 173 acres in Clayton. This is the first of two closings planned for a combined 350-acre tract situated north of downtown Clayton, off of No. O’Neil Street. The buyer is Pulte Homes, which is developing the 750-home ‘Carolina Overlook,’ a 55+ Del Webb community.

The 173 acres sold on October 31^st for $20 million, or roughly $115,600 per acre. The second closing on the remaining 177 acres is scheduled for October 2025.

The Carolina Overlook community was recently featured in the Triangle Business Journal.  You can learn about the history and hurdles of gaining rezoning approval for the project here. The crux of the debate centered on the impact on traffic the project would have on the small town of just over 30,000.

David Divine has managed the sales process for this land, originally 650 acres, starting in 2005. That’s not a typo – David’s representation of the seller began almost 20 years ago. We asked him to share the story of this timeline – through the real estate market crash of ‘08, and the changing lending environments and interest rates since.

From David Divine –

“The Earp family hired me to sell their 650 acres of family land back in 2005. We went under contract for the entire acreage fairly quickly with a developer out of New Jersey. They were not able to close because the lending environment quickly changed due to the housing market crash in 2007. The buyer walked away from a significant amount of earnest money. They were under contract in 2005 for $17 million or $26,000 per acre for the entire 650 acres.

We took the property off the market during the “great recession ” through 2011 and went back to market in 2012. We went under contract with another developer for the entirety of the 650 acres. They proceeded to site plan approve the entire property but did not close in the end. We had another developer do the same thing, and they walked away from a large earnest money deposit as well in 2019-2020.

The owners decided to take the northern acreage of 350 acres off the market, and only offer the southern acreage of 300 acres for sale.  Pulte Homes ultimately purchased the southern 300 acres for, at that time in 2021, a market value of $35,000 per acre. Pulte is developing the southern acreage into their signature Del Webb community, and it still being built out.

In 2022, we decided to market the northern 350 acres for sale.  I contacted the top 10 national and regional builders in the Triangle area, and we initially went under contract with MI Homes. MI Homes decided to walk away after interest rates began to spike in June 2022. After interest rates went from 3% to 6.5%, they felt they could no longer pay the price they agreed to. Pulte returned to the table and agreed to purchase the northern 350 acres for $40 million or roughly $115,000 per acre. They just closed on Oct 31, 2024, on 173 of the 300 acres for $20 million and will be closing on the other half of the property for $20 million in October 2025. As you can see above, residential land prices went from $26,000 per acre in 2005 for 650 acres to $35,000 per acre in 2020 to $115,000 per acre in 2024. The appreciation of residential land in the Triangle over the past 4 years is historic and unprecedented.

I have had the pleasure of working with the property owners for 20 years, from 2005 to 2025. There have been some great things that have occurred and some sad things as well. Sadly, Ray Earp, who inherited the land along with his sister Mary “Winkie” Worley from their father, had an accident on his tractor and passed away back in 2013. This was devastating to the entire family. Ray’s wonderful wife Nancy had to step up and help run the family business with their son, Raymond “Chip” Earp. Winkie and Nancy have been great stewards of their family land. It has been an absolute pleasure working with them over the years.”