August 24, 2010

As stated elsewhere on this website, one of the key roles I can play as your REALTOR is to provide you with the information you need to make good decisions.   Whether you are buying or selling, it helps to understand what is happening in the market where your property is located. 

I track the Real Estate Market here in the Topsail area very closely and the first of each month compile a series of reports to help evaluate where we've been and where we are headed. 

The graph shown here tracks the number of property closings, by month, for the entire island for the period of 2003 thru last month.  Our market typically peaks in April and May prior to the summer season.  In a normal market there is a secondary spike in November, with buyers acquiring properties to get them ramped up for spring rental bookings.    On this graph you will see the precipitous fall which began in August of 2005.

Starting with January 2009 we've seen a steady upward trend in monthly closings with the last quarter's numbers being the best same month prior year comparison since 2006.  

Monthly Sales Data

The fall in demand has resulted in a significant increase in the inventory of properties for sale and a corresponding rise in the average Days on the Market (DOM).   On the attached chart, I break down the types of property actively for sale by: Residential, Multi-Famly and Vacant Lots, and by each of the three towns on the island: Topsail Beach, Surf City and North Topsail Beach.  This chart shows the number of properties for sale and the number of actual closed sales for the preceding 12, 6 and 3 month periods.  It then calculates the months supply of inventory per these inputs.  You can see the resulting suppy data by category as well as for each town and the island as a whole.  Inventory levels continue to fall with 655 properties actively on the market on at the beginning of this month. This is the lowest number we have seen in over two years and is down several hundred from the levels last fall.

Inventory - Months Supply

Compared to other Southeastern North Carolina beach communities Topsail is still quite a bargain.  As a member of the Wilmington Board, I have access to all the MLS data there as well as all the Brunswick County information.   Periodically, I prepare a study of all the Southeastern North Carolina beaches to determine how pricing on Topsail compares to the other areas.   For this study, I use Single Family, Oceanfront properties as my benchmark and compute the average price per square foot from each of the respecitve beach communities.   It's pretty interesting reading.  

Southeastern NC Oceanfront Price Comparisons