Since January, five local residential properties have sold for $1 million or more, according to the Wilmington Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Only one property sold for over $1 million during this period last year.

“The recent uptick in the sale of high-end properties is a potential indicator for a recovering real estate market,” said Jim Wallace, CEO of Intracoastal Realty in a press release. “We’re encouraged by the resurgence and think it bodes well for a recovering market.”

Wallace reports that his company sold its first home for over $3 million in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties since October 2010; it was the first $3 million-plus sale on Wrightsville Beach since September 2009, according to local MLS data.
 
The three-story house, located at 14 Southridge Road on Wrightsville Beach, sold for $3.15 million. Intracoastal Realty agents represented both the buyer and seller of the nearly 5,000-square-foot property. Jim Buzby, principle and general contractor for Del Mar of Wilmington, built the spec house in 2007. It was originally listed at $5.25 million, he said.

“I price everything to the market. At the time, that was probably the peak of the market,” he said. “Generally speaking, it would be very, very exceptional for someone to have a market decline by 28 to 33 percent and carry it for five years, and make any profit off it.”

The last $3 million-plus home sold in the area was a Piper’s Neck Road listing on Figure Eight Island, which sold for $3,495,000 on October 25, 2010 by Intracoastal Realty’s Margaret Barclay. The last sale above $3 million on Wrightsville Beach was a Parmele Blvd. listing, which was sold for $3.2 million on September 15, 2009 by Intracoastal’s Mark Bodford.