Its tall, white-stone walls may have stopped outside residents from looking into the exclusive residential community, but they weren’t tall enough to keep national economic calamity from affecting some of Landfall’s housing values.

From Black Monday in 1987 to the dot-com boom and bust; a resurgent housing market in the mid 2000s to the housing bubble bust of the Great Recession – Landfall, for the most part, saw its values rise and fall with the times.

But even in the worst of times, the development’s values remained 40 to 50 percent higher than the rest of the region. 

“It’s a resilient community,” said 22-year Landfall Realtor and resident Alison Bernhart. “I believe we will see renewed appreciation, but it will be small and gradual. I think long gone are the days of the overheated market.” 

Bernhart said that at some point, all of the 1,900 homesites and lots in the 2,200-acre master planned community have been sold and resold, whether to existing clients looking to build bigger, downsizing to a smaller residence or simply relocating to another area of the country or region. 

Year-to-date, the average price for a home in Landfall is about $587,000 – that’s down from more than $686,000 from last year. Lot sales have also fallen from more than $166,000 in 2011 to $148,000 year-to-date. 

But compared with the rest of the Wilmington area, the development continues to outshine other neighborhoods. 

Year-to date, the average home in New Hanover County sells for $221,000 – that’s $3,000 higher than this time last year. But it’s nearly 50 percent less for what a single-family residence or condo sells for in Landfall. 

Bernhart said keeping the development mostly custom has helped keep values from sliding too quickly. 

“If you drive through this community, every house is different,” she said. “It’s what makes us Landfall, and even as the size of the average house shrinks, people still want custom quality … I think that is what has helped us retain values during the recessions.” 

Value surge

Big houses, nice cars and more people weren’t the only thing on the rise at Landfall. 

It turns out housing values within the enclaves of homes, townhomes and garden homes surged between 2004 and 2008 – a time when the region’s housing values also posted big gains. 

“You saw a lot of activity in the area,” said Vance Young, a longtime Realtor with Intracoastal Realty who began selling homes upon the development’s inception and currently lives in Landfall. 

“For a while, Wilmington lagged behind the rest of the country when it came to values. When the market got overheated, I would say around 2004 to 2005, then those values began to catch up.” 

When the development first began soliciting snowbirds from up North and corporate retirees from large North Carolina metros such as Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro in the late 1980s, prices ranged from $40,000 to $60,000 for a golf course lot to $250,000 to $300,000 for a waterfront lot.   

But that quickly changed as the development’s popularity and demand continued to grow. And by the mid 1990s, Landfall’s values were on fire – with golf course lots selling between $150,000 to $200,000 and waterfront lots priced between $1.2 million and $1.5 million. 

Between 2004 and 2007, the average home price in Landfall exploded from $572,000 in 2004 to its peak in 2007 at $894,000 – just before the housing market crashed upon the start of the Great Recession.

The average price for a home plummeted to $600,000 a year later – mostly the result of foreclosures and some residents abandoning their properties overnight, local Realtors said.   

Lot values also went gangbuster during the same time period, even reaching its highest point ever in 2007, when an average lot sold for $463,000.  

Year-to-date, the average price for a home now sits at a chilled $587,000; the average lot price is now $149,000 – constants that could change depending on who buys what in the development over the coming months.  

“It just wasn’t [Landfall] that saw housing prices increase so quickly, and I wouldn’t say we were responsible for the housing bubble,” Bernhart said. 

“There were a lot of areas in the county that experience rapid house appreciation, starting with Wrightsville Beach …  Values in Porters Neck and Figure Eight Island also increased.”

And with such high-end housing stock in demand, the surge in values might have had a ripple affect on homes throughout the region.  

According to data from the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors, between 2004 and 2007 home values surged 30 percent – going from $210,000 in 2004 to $273,000 in 2007. 

Bernhart said while values have tapered off some, there were signs that Landfall’s values – albeit higher than the rest of the region – could soon be on the incline. 

“Landfall offers something for everyone,” she said. “In this market, I think that is something that you must have.” 

Pointing out the popularity in the development’s garden homes, Bernhart said smaller homes crammed with amenities were the growing trend with baby boomers looking to retire. 

“They want a smaller home, but aren’t shying away from the amenities,” she said. “They want the granite countertops, the office and stainless steel appliances, but as for having a room for every single family member or guest, we’re not seeing that. The era of the McMansions has run its course … the mentality has shifted.” 

On average, the size of house is shrinking in Landfall, though modestly – dropping from 3,876 square feet in 2011 to 3,465 square feet year-to-date.

But despite seeing smaller homes under construction throughout the development, it’s the custom quality within each residence that has helped values increase. 

“Residents want quality,” Bernhart said. “That comes with living in Landfall, and it’s that same quality that has helped keep values high. Even during the down years, people are continuing to invest in their homes.”  

But while the physical square footage of a house has shrank in Landfall, Young said large homes were still appealing to new residents with children. 

“There are over 700 school-aged children in Landfall,” Young said. “I can remember living in a 1,000-square-foot place as a bachelor, but then I got married and had three children, so moving to Landfall was the only next step. There are still people out there that are going through that transition and need to upgrade to something bigger.”