Leland boosts Brunswick home sales

January 28, 2009

Brunswick Forest

The Star News 1.28.09
By Wayne Faulkner
Business Editor

Brunswick County was a bit of a bright spot in an otherwise dismal North Carolina real estate picture in 2008, according to data from state multiple listing services compiled by the N.C. Association of Realtors.

While North Carolina as a whole saw home sales drop 26 percent and the total dollar value of those sales fall 29 percent, the Brunswick County Association of Realtors reported positive results when including Leland-area sales.

The Brunswick association has a data-sharing agreement with the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors – which also has listings in the Leland area – said Shannon Hill, Brunswick Realtors president. Getting rid of duplicate sales, Brunswick County home sales rose 35 percent in 2008 as the dollar value of homes sold rose 9 percent.

Brunswick was the only association reporting a higher value of home sales in 2008 than the year before. In comparison, Wilmington-area sales reported by the WRAR fell 30 percent and the total dollar volume of those sales fell 25 percent.

“Thirty-three percent of the Brunswick County market is in the Leland area and home values have not dropped there relative to the beaches,” Hill said. “It’s driven by employment and jobs available in Wilmington.”

When Leland sales are pulled out, however, Brunswick sales actually fell in 2008 – to 1,693 units from 1,746 in 2007.

Although the number of homes on the market has slipped a bit since the beginning of 2008, there still are 18 months of inventory, Hill said. That means that it would take 18 months to sell the 2,024 homes currently on the market in Brunswick County at the sales rate of 2007, Hill explained.

available properties