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1816 Mews Drive • Wilmington • 910-256-6111 • www.landfallrealty.com
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WBM february 2011
a doctor from the Raleigh area. The
buyers of 743 are from South Lake,
Texas, looking ahead to retirement.
Tax value a true
indicator?
“Tax values are holding at
Wrightsville Beach, maybe 5 percent
off the tax values, but there are afflu-ent
people purchasing property there,”
says Don Harris of Century 21 Brock
& Associates, who sold 741 Schloss
Street. “Countywide, you can average
15-20 percent less than tax value but
not Wrightsville Beach.” Intracoastal
Realty’s Debbie Mitchell, the listing
agent on that property sale, disagrees.
“I don’t think you can make a general
statement like that about values,” she
says. “I’ve never thought it was an
indicator of value. For example, they
assessed all of the waterfront lots at
Wrightsville at the same value regard-less
of boating access.”
She refers to a common mistake
tax assessors and appraisers make at
Wrightsville in valuing boat dockage
regardless of access or depth of water
at the dock. They incorrectly value
those properties that have dockage
for smaller boats the same as those
not restricted by the Banks Channel
fixed bridges or others where vessels
must come under the drawbridge and
a long way around to gain access to
Masonboro Inlet and the ocean.
Lot Sales
Just one lot sold, but it was a top-dollar
sale on a bulkheaded, water-front,
west-facing lot on Island Drive,
with deepwater access for large sail or
power craft and unencumbered ocean
or Intracoastal Waterway access. It
sold for $1.65 million, and a new sec-ond
home was under construction on
the lot in January 2010.
One lot sale was pending as
the year turned over, 303 North
Channel Drive. Purchase of the lot
included plans for a 3,100 square
foot home.