Coastal North Carolina Sees Unprecedented Growth

The coastal lifestyle has been drawing record numbers to North Carolina’s shores for decades, but never has it been more apparent than in the last few years.

Wilmington, NC, has seen explosive growth, and its downtown skyline has been forever changed with all of the new buildings. Just across the Cape Fear River is Brunswick County that spans south to the state border. It has consistently been among the fastest-growing counties in the state. So we’ve reached out to several communities within this area.

Keith Beatty of Intracoastal Realty covers a 45-mile radius around the Wilmington area from North Topsail to Brunswick County and River Landing in Wallace, NC. He says, “It’s very tight for pricing. Brunswick, Pender, and New Hanover have roughly half a month’s supply of housing. If there is a home that comes on the market in the $300s, it is gone the next day.” Beatty says, “The market has absolutely exploded since May 2020 to present. People come for the quality of life here: the four seasons and the water-oriented outdoor activities. The problem is we can’t produce houses fast enough for the demand. I don’t see the prices coming down any time soon. There is so little supply and so much demand. I think we are going to be in this trend for a while.

“Not everyone is oriented into a golf course community or master-planned community. This real estate market has really helped the upper end of the market. More houses have sold in the $2,000,000+ range than in any previous year. 2021 surpassed 2020 in terms of high-end homes sold.”

According to Robin Campbell, Director of Marketing for Bill Clark Homes who builds in the Wilmington and Greenville, NC, areas, they have sold 825 homes in the last 18 months. When asked what surprised her about the last 18 months, she said, “Everything has surprised us, but in turn, now nothing really shocks us anymore: price increases; delays across the board with trusses, windows, HVAC, outdoor enclosures, sub-contractors, etc.; demand in general; and the inability to hire additional resources to keep up with the demand.” This sentiment speaks to the thoughts of just about every builder out there.

“In the past, we have been able to release new properties to the open market, however now, as we’ve built our VIP lists during the planning periods and the demand for each individual community has been so high, we’ve had to structure limited releases. For example, one community we scheduled only enough appointments for property we had available to sell on a first-come, first-serve basis. We required each to provide proof of pre-qualification. We ended up with a 100% conversion rate and sold out the entire section without taking anything to market. It’s a very different time to sell new homes these days,” says Campbell.

Master-Planned Communities in Brunswick County

“Over the past 18 months, we welcomed about 600 families to Brunswick Forest with $200,000,000 in sales volume. We have seen unprecedented numbers. The only limitation is to get inventory to meet the demand that we have,” says Jerry Helms, President of Brunswick Forest Realty.

“Most of our builders have furnished models so that the homebuyers can see what the home will look like as it is being constructed. That enables the homebuyer to get tomorrow’s home at today’s price. They are able to lock in on the pricing even before the home is complete.

When you are buying into a successful masterplanned community, these communities have aligned themselves with builders that have the strength to build homes in a volatile market like this and not leave the homebuyer in a lurch.”

Helms continues, “Some retirees are just starting to look, and some have been looking for a while. People are getting what they can find. It’s crazy. The homebuyer says, ‘We want to be in Brunswick Forest. We want to be out of this high-density city with high taxes.’ I encourage buyers not to let interest rates dictate what you do. The difference between three to four percent interest rates is not that much. Long term, you need to focus on the lifestyle, not the interest rates. Get the right area and community and home.”

In Southport, NC, it’s easy to see why St. James Plantation has been so successful for the last 30+ years. According to Jay Atkinson, president of St. James Plantation, “For St. James, we are on the tail end of the development cycle from a developer perspective, but some things that have taken place here are positioning St. James to be even more attractive because all of the amenities are completed and the area is growing around us. It has helped us from a demand and a momentum perspective. It’s still hard to comprehend how we are and have stayed where we are. For example, four years ago, we sold the clubs to Troon, the world’s largest golf management company. Troon continues to polish and refresh the amenity package here and invest in the clubs. Residents are really excited that Troon is renovating the restaurant at the marina. It’s a great partnership.”

He says there are still fewer than 20 homes on the market in St. James, but new listings come up all of the time. “We are encouraging our clients to have a game plan of what they want, and as soon as the home comes on the MLS, our agents are on it within minutes. It’s a different approach that the pandemic has created.”

The Triangle Johnston County is one of the fastest-growing counties in North Carolina due to its proxim- ity to Raleigh. The 3,000-acre community of Flowers Plantation has had explosive growth during the last two years. People are relocating from Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Connecticut, and the West for the mild fourseason climate. It’s a couple of hours from the coast and the mountains and within a 30-minute drive of excellent quality medical centers. Flowers Plantation sold over 700 homes in the last two years. According to Director of Sales and Marketing, Vanessa Chandler, “People are paying $30,000 to $50,000 above asking price for resales. I think many people are at the point where they think that they will wait it out and see what happens because something has to give. But to tell you the truth, I think they are hurting themselves by doing that because even though at some point we are going to stabilize, I don’t think prices will go down. I think this is our new normal. If you try to sit and wait, you’re just hurting yourself. If you are looking a year or a year and a half out, what you will see now may not be here then.”