Last month sales New Hanover County
After two straight months of increasing sales, February saw a significant drop. Sales were down from January by about 8% and down from last February by 16%. It was the slowest February for sales since 2014.

Sales have been down fairly consistently since 2021, but had been showing signs of increasing recently.

For the year 2024, sales ended up down 1% from 2023. For the year in 2023 home sales finished 19% off compared to 2022. Home sales in 2024 were the lowest since 2014.

Last month Prices New Hanover County--------
After January's record high average sales price of over $668k, average numbers took a tumble in February to just over $540k. That number is down 1% from last February and is well below the average sales price for 2024. The average price per square foot of a sold home finished virtually unchanged from same month last year, at $293, but that is way down from January's $322.

I think that when there are fewer home sales, with some high dollar sales, then the average figures can be misleading. So I started doing the median sales figures. The median price for a sold home peaked in August at 479k, and has fallen pretty steadily, to 436k in February 2025.

The average price for sold homes in New Hanover County in 2024 was around 597k and $302 per sq ft, which was up around 10% and 6% from 2022. The median sale price in 2024 was 452k, up from 425k in 2023.

Current Inventory ----------
Inventory was up 13% from January and up 36% from same month last year. After eighth straight months of increasing inventory, the number of homes on the market fell in December to under 1000, went even lower in January, to 847, and then bounced back up to 897 in February and then back over 1000 in March. It is not uncommon for inventory to start increasing in the Spring.

Some interesting lookbacks on inventory:
—Inventory in March 2022 was 252, which is about as low as it has been in 20 years.
—Inventory in March 2020 was 1121, at the start of the pandemic
—Distressed inventory(foreclosure or short sale) in 2015 was 89, it has been pretty much zero for several years now

Inventory is generally on the rise, but still way below historic levels. Six years ago inventory was almost twice that number, twelve years ago inventory was about three times that number.

Average inventory in 2024 was 897, the average for 2023 was 583, the average for 2022 was 432.

The highest average inventory (since I started looking at it in 2008) was in 2008, when the average was over 3500 homes for sale.

High Dollar Properties ----------
There were 17 homes sold for over a million last month, which is about 10 under average.

Last year was a banner year for $1 million plus homes, there was a record 349 sales.

The top sale for the month was a $7 million house on Wrightsville Beach.

See the top listings in New Hanover County here

There have been over 40 sales of over $5 million in the history of the MLS. There have also been over 20 sales of over $6 million. Out of the top 20 highest sales, half were in 2024.

See the top home sales in the HISTORY of New Hanover County here.