Housing industry nails down another solid year.

• Position: In North Carolina - Industry Overview

Considering the strong year the Tar Heel housing market has had - new-home construction approaching $6 billion and existing home prices averaging $135,888, up from $131,533 a year earlier - you might expect industry executives to be whistling all the way to the bank.

That's where they are headed, but some, particularly in big cities, are too worried to whistle. They are concerned that rebuilding from Hurricane Fran, which damaged 41,600 homes in 52 counties, is slowing new-home construction and might force major insurers out of the state housing market. They also wonder how much worse the labor shortage will get and how high wages will go. Wages have already hit $22.50 an hour for expert carpenters in some places.

Regardless, state home builders and sellers say they can look back on a solid year. "North Carolina will build the fourth- or fifth-largest number of housing units in the country this year, in the neighborhood of 60,000," says Ken Mitchell, executive vice president of the North Carolina Homebuilders Association, which has 14,600 members, up 1,060 from a year ago.

Mitchell and the N.C. Department of Labor expect construction to be up 3%. Building and sales have been generally well distributed both geographically and by value. "Wake County has started to grow after two years of being stagnant, and Guilford has been doing well," says Bernard Helm, whose Market Opportunity Research Enterprises of Rocky Mount tracks the 13 largest residential markets. "Forsyth has shown some growth, mainly as the west side of Greensboro pushes into the county." Permits in Mecklenburg rose 10%, with new homes averaging about $182,000. Raleigh's average was $185,000, but the most expensive place to buy was around Chapel Hill. In Orange County, new houses jumped $30,000 in a single year, to $240,000.

Chapel Hill also had the most expensive existing homes, says Scott Rooth, president of the 20,563-member North Carolina Association of Realtors. Average resale was $195,815, eclipsing Raleigh, next highest, at $158,047. On the coast, which was off to a record year before being battered by hurricanes Bertha and Fran, Wilmington resales were up 14%, averaging $133,449.

As usual, Raleigh and Charlotte managed to nudge into the national limelight. A survey by the Washington-based Urban Land Institute concluded they had some of the nation's fastest-rising land values. The average value of a lot in Raleigh jumped 27.5% in five years, to $38,250, and in Charlotte...