Last month sales New Hanover County
January sales were down significantly, probably because it was so frickin' cold all month nobody wanted to go outside. The 241 sales was down 13% from same time last year. Except for a blip month during Florence in 2018, the 241 sales was the lowest in 12 years.

For the year 2025, sales were up 3%. For the year 2024, sales ended up down 1% from 2023. For the year 2023, home sales finished 19% off compared to 2022. Home sales in 2024 were the lowest since 2014.

Last month Prices New Hanover County--------
I keep talking about prices going down, but then prices don't go down. December the average sales price was down to $583k, the lowest since July, but January reversed that trend. The average sales price in January was over $704k, the highest ever. The average price per square foot was also a record high, at $329. It could be that the lower number of sales led to higher than normal averages. The median price of a sold home in January was just $450k, which is less than last year's average of $462k. The median price per sq ft came in at $262, up slightly from last year's average of $260.

The average price for sold homes in New Hanover County in 2025 was around $613k and $307 per sq ft. In 2024 it was around 597k and $302 per sq ft. The median sale price in 2025 was $462k, in 2024 it was 452k.

Current Inventory ----------
Inventory fell for the fourth straight month, but not by a lot. The current inventory of 1005 homes for sale is down by three from last month, but up 12% from same time last year. Again, this may be weather related, I suspect there are people holding off to list waiting on better weather.

For the year 2025, the average inventory was 1108, compared to 897 in 2024. The average for 2023 was 583, the average for 2022 was 432. So there is clearly an upward trend.

Looking back, inventory in the summer of 2022 was around 500; inventory in 2015 was around 2100; and summer inventory in 2010 was around 3400.

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 ----------
The high end market continues to be hot, there were 31 homes sales over $1 million last month, compared to 27 same month last year. For the year in 2025, there was a record 408 homes that sold for over $1 million, there were 349 in 2024.

The top sale for the month was a $6.75 million sale oceanfront at Figure Eight Island.

See the top listings in New Hanover County here

There have been 11 sales over $10 million in the history of the mls. There have been over 60 sales of over $5 million. Out of the top 20 highest sales, only six happened prior to 2024.

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