When local real estate agent Jeff Lesley attended a conference in Florida recently, he asked colleagues from other states, “Am I the only one here who is still seeing rising prices?”

And basically, Lesley said, he was, out of a group of dozens of real estate agents from throughout the East Coast.

With interest rates the lowest they have been in generations and people still drawn to the coast, the demand for homes in Wilmington continues even as the number of units available at certain price points dwindles, those in the real estate industry say.   

“What we’re seeing across the board, then, is anything kind of in that [$250,000] and below range, no matter where you’re at in town, there’s just a lack of inventory, period,” said Lesley, a Realtor with Wilmington-based Century 21 Sweyer & Associates.

A look at absorption rates compiled from N.C. Regional MLS data shows the area’s tightest price ranges, said Don Harris, president of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors and an agent with Intracoastal Realty.

Some of the most telling rates involve homes costing from $100,000 to about $319,000.

“That is the market that’s selling the hottest,” Harris said, referring to a first-quarter report generated by WRAR on absorption rates.

The report shows that months of supply have dipped to 1.85 for the $100,000-$119,000 range, 2 for the $160,000-$179,000 category and 2.63 for the $260,000 to $279,999 range, to name a few. Anything below 4 is indicative of a seller’s market.

Among the reasons for the low inventory at certain price points, Harris said, are the prices homeowners paid before the economy took a turn for the worse in the Great Recession and the housing bubble burst. Typically, the average buyer sells every seven years, Harris said, but some of those who bought at the height of the market are waiting to sell or remodeling and staying.

Some buyers are waiting too. 

“A lot of people are still sitting on the fence thinking it might get better or thinking that prices will come down,” Harris said. “I do not see the prices coming down, only going up.”

During the first half of this year, WRAR reported an increase of nearly 19 percent in the total number of homes sold. As a result, Harris described the overall market as “robust.” 

He said homes in the categories that are considered part of a current seller’s market, especially in prices of $300,000 or less, have been receiving multiple offers.
 
A top seller in the region, Lesley said even when it comes to homes with prices that are outside of the hottest ranges, some pent-up demand is driving purchases. 

He used the example of a home in Carolina Beach that was on the market four or five years ago and the highest offer came in at $360,000. 

“I brought it on for $549,000, and we were under contract in 24 hours … It [the demand] does exist, even in that price range in unique properties that are out there,” Lesley said. 

Harris said he thinks the market could stay robust in the coming months and potentially years.

“As long as inventory is low in these price ranges, if it stays two or three months of absorption, you’ll continue to have multiple offers and few days on the market for those properties that are in good condition, a good location and fairly priced,” Harris said.