Wilmington & Wrightsville Beach Real Estate Market Update October 4, 2011

Overall New Hanover County still has just under a 13 month supply of homes – which is slightly down from last month. The number of sales is down about 6-7% from this time last year.  I expect to finish out the year about the same as last year.  Of course the higher the price point, the longer the wait to sell - $1M and above has under a 4 year supply – which is slightly better than last month. 

Wrightsville Beach, NC is doing well with 8 sales in September (about the same as the summer months) and 68 sales so far in 2011– we had 40 this time last year.   There are currently 2 properties with contracts Pending, and 8 in the Contingent or Due Diligence stage.  With 179 properties for sale, there’s just under 2 years of inventory, which is down from last month too.

Landfall has had 45 sales so far in 2011 (compared to 60 this time last year), so still a little behind last year.  But still working to catch up with 4 homes under contract currently and 9 in the Contingent or Due Diligence stage.  There are 139 listed for sale – inventory is slowly shrinking.  Based 2011 sales, there’s under a 2.5 year supply of homes for sale currently – which is down from last month.  The average sales price in Landfall in 2011 is $688,284 (up slightly again from last month).

Landfall lots have a 3.5 year supply – 119 for sale & 33 sales in the past year.  The most expensive lot to sell was $340,000, so still not any really high dollar lots. 

Porters Neck had 2 sales in September, 1 in August, 0 in July & 3 in June.  Things have slowed some, and right now there’s about a 20 month supply of homes for sale in Porters Neck Plantation – 40 for sale, 2 sales pending, 23 sold in the past year.

Lots in Wilmington are still moving much slower than homes.  There are 743 lots For Sale, 9 Pending Sales, and we’ve had 110 Sales so far this year, so there’s quite a supply of lots for sale in Wilmington – a 5 year supply, which is down again from last month.

Carolina/Kure Beaches have 381 properties for sale, 25 pending sales, and has seen 250 sales in 2011 – for just under a 14 month supply of properties.  The low prices are keeping sales moving well.

Freclosures & Short Sales are still having an impact on pricing, and there will continue to be more foreclosures & short sales for a while, unfortunately.

Showings are up from where they were this time last year, so buyers are still looking for that great “deal”.  Showings activity typically trends downward this time of year bottoming out in December/January, and then start to rise again in February & early spring.

Interest rates are holding steadily low at 4% for conforming 30 year fixed loans on primary residences.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information.