Cape Fear’s luxury housing market slows, first time in two years

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — After a record breaking last two years, the luxury housing market around the Cape Fear appears to be slowing down.

For the first time since 2020, the luxury housing market (defined as a house greater than $1 million) in the area failed to post an increase in year-to-year sales.

A total of 50 high-end homes sold in the tri-county area of New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender Counties in October. The properties closed for a combined value of $78.4 million. Those numbers are shy of the mark set in October of 2021 when 53 homes sold for a combined value of $90.5 million.

“It almost seems a little unfair because last month was the second best October ever recorded,” Scott Saxton of Just for Buyers Realty said. “And if you were to look at those numbers, they’re impressive. But when you view them in the context of this record breaking streak, where month after month we witnessed gains in the luxury housing market, and now we see this dip, it says to me that if we’re not seeing a slow down, at least we are seeing a calming down.”

During the streak, which lasted from May 2020 through September 2022, more than 1,400 luxury homes sold for a whopping $2.3 Billion.

“We knew it couldn’t last forever,” Saxton said. “Certainly the recent increase in interest rates could have played a role in slowing things down, and then it also could simply be that things just ran their course. Having said that- I think when we look back at the record sales, we will see this streak as the time when the Cape Fear region really positioned itself on the luxury map.”