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The Broad View
The good news is that New Hanover County finished up 5.6
percent in overall dollar volume for 2010, with Realtor-assisted
sales closing out more than $698 million in real estate for the year.
The number of residential properties sold also increased, finish-ing
the year at 2,662, an increase of 5.8 percent with 230 addi-tional
properties waiting to close in 2011.
Realtor-assisted short sales accounted for 177 of these sales;
Wrightsville and Landfall are credited with six short sales each,
Porters Neck with two, Figure Eight none, and Pleasure Island
closed out the year with 36.
Intracoastal Realty Broker in Charge Chris Livengood notes that
20 percent of all Realtor-assisted sales in the county were either
short sales or foreclosures. “That’s one in five properties in those
two categories,” he says.
As the housing market struggles to
stabilize both nationally and locally, the
most acute challenge will come from the
expected flood in foreclosures. Estimates
call for foreclosures to rise to new highs
again this year. When the largest banks
suspended foreclosure proceedings in
October, the number of foreclosures went
down 21 percent when compared to the
same period the previous year.
Just before the suspension hit, fore-closures
312 Beach Road North — Figure Eight Island
The top sale in New Hanover County
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
were at an all-time high for the
month of September. The freeze created a
backlog which led to artificially low end-of-
the-year numbers. Analysts expect things
to get moving again in the first quarter of
2011. Coupled with that is the expected
increase of the number of homes moving
into foreclosure.
Regardless, many area Brokers feel in the
years to come that buyers will look back on
2010 as the year of the deal. Randy Williams
of Team Hardee Hunt and Williams
describes it succinctly. “It was a year of sobriety for sellers,” he says.
Of the top 12 sales in the county, four were at Wrightsville.
Landfall saw three and Figure Eight Island racked up four, includ-ing
the top sale in the county, a $4 million deal at 312 Beach
Road North, a 7,000 square foot home that features 3,000 square
feet of outdoor waterfront living space and six bedrooms. The sec-ond
top spot also went to Figure Eight with a $3,495,000 sale of a
Ligon Flynn design at 47 Pipers Neck Road.
Figure Eight
All in all, however, Figure Eight Realtor-assisted sales saw a 29
percent drop in sales volume, and 40 percent drop in the number
of homes sold. But average sales price was on the increase, up more
than 18 percent to $2,155,318. The median sales price was a healthy
$2,150,000.
Landfall
On the mainland, Landfall finished the year strong, posting
a jump in the number of sales, almost 93 percent. Logging 79
Realtor-assisted sales for 2010, the overall sold volume was just shy
of 110 percent, closing out the year with $52,606,400 in sales and
showing a 49.8 percent increase in the top dollar sales price. Vance
Young was the top producing sales person for New Hanover
County by dollar volume. A lot of the Landfall buyers were local
people, purchasing primary residences. Vance Young says, “The
biggest difference is Landfall is predominantly primary resi-dences,
90 percent live there year-round and the primary market
rebounded nicely, and that’s who’s buying. We have not seen that
rebound yet in the second-home market, that’s why Wrightsville,
Figure Eight and Carolina Beach are off.”
Pleasure Island (Carolina &
Kure beaches)
Pleasure Island posted higher numbers for the year, with almost
a 17 percent increase in units sold, to finish out the year with 336
sales and 19 pending. Overall, sold volume came close to increas-ing
10 percent, but the dual community island also saw a signifi-cant
number of foreclosures, as well as a steady stream of short
sales. The average sales price was down 6 percent to $278,706.
The median sales price was also down 3.8 percent.
Porters Neck
It’s hard to have solid numbers for Porters Neck because the
neighborhood is larger than just the real estate encompassed by the
country club boundaries. But, like Landfall, sales in that area also
boomed. Dollar volume on sales was up nearly 84 percent, closing