What’s Happening In the Wilmington, NC Real Estate Market – January 2024

It’s time for our monthly market update! Here we are – February. Winter. The real estate market is behaving fairly predictably for this time of year, with January inventory creeping up and sold volume at a near-annual low. This is what we expect. Read on to see some trends of note that may indicate more than something seasonal.

New Hanover County inventory moved up to 3.3 months in January 2024. That’s the highest it has been since May of 2020! In fact, the past three months have been the only months since May 2020 to be over 3 months of inventory. That indicates a trend towards a stable market, but is still favorable to sellers at the moment. Brunswick County did rose to 4.4 months of inventory in January, indicating a stable market. Pender County rose to 4.0 months, and Onslow County rose slightly to 3.0 months. Overall this indicates a trend towards a stable market in our area, but it could dip back down in the coming months as the spring market picks up.

What’s also interesting to note is the sales volume in January 2024 in New Hanover County. At $154.9M, it is slightly higher than the same month last year ($127.4M). It is a seasonal low, and lower than the same month of 2022, but higher than January 2020, 2021, and 2023. This is primarily due to the increase in the median sales price over the same period. Actual number of listings sold was 251 for January 2024, a 4 year low with the exception of January 2023 that saw 246 listing sold. This means that January was slow, despite the volume trends. Number of listings sold has been on a downward tangent since 2020.

What does this mean? I think the increasing inventory is a good sign for the market. Although still low, it may help give the spring market a little boost in the number of sales, loosen it up a little bit so that buyers have some choices and sellers can make a move if they want to. I’m hoping to see that trend line in number of listings sold (third graph) be up for 2024 when we look back at this time next year.

Questions? Looking for numbers for a specific neighborhood or town? Please email me at kim@thecoastalrealestategroup.com.