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he Cape Fear region has long been a popular relocation spot, but now even more people are flocking to Wilmington. The area was one of the most sought-after places to live in the nation last year, the ripple effects showing in various real estate trends. And some of those trends have come because of the COVID-19 pandemic. BY CHRISTINA HALEY O'NEAL
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LUXURY SALES SPARKLE
REMODELING RAMPS UP
Breaking record after record, the luxury home sales market has been on fire with a steady increase in sales through the COVID-19 pandemic. “In this market, I think people are benefiting from people that were already planning to relocate here, but (COVID) expedited that,” said Tom Gale, president of Wilmington-based Cape Fear Realtors. Luxury home sales had their best year on record locally in 2020, and 21 homes, with a final price of $1 million or more, sold during the month of January for a January record in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, according to reports by Wilmington-based Just For Buyers Realty. There were eight homes sold for $4 million or more in New Hanover County in 2020, most of the homes on Figure Eight Island. “I think the location of the lion’s share of these luxury homes are on these barrier islands … that’s where everybody wants to be,” said Cynthia Walsh, CEO of the Brunswick County Association of Realtors. In Brunswick County, the largest sale of 2020 was over $3 million; 16 sales were $2 million or greater.
As more people stayed in due to the pandemic, homeowners worked on overdue home improvement projects, bringing value and a fresh new look to their living spaces. A quarterly survey of remodeler members with the National Association of Home Builders indicates that the Remodeling Market Index – which is scaled from 0 to 100 where an index number of 50 indicates a higher share of remodelers view conditions as good rather than poor – showed a rating of 48, 73, 82 and 79 over the four quarters of 2020, respectively. With the area’s tight housing market, homeowners may tend to be more inclined to make improvements. “I think a lot of those people that might toy with the idea of selling can’t really find anything that they want in the price point that they really want to spend,” Gale said. “So those people are just renovating their home and staying put.” But that too is causing issues in the home improvement market with the availability and time needed getting the supplies, services and materials to do the work, he said.
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