Wilmington’s housing market continues to be healthy, but keeping an eye on regulations as the city and county creates new development codes is key, real estate brokers and others who work in the industry said at a panel Thursday.

“I think the biggest thing that’s important for us to take away from here is: buyers and sellers need to know this is probably the best time ever [to buy a home], and we keep saying that,” said Don Harris, president of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors. “With interest rates at what they are today [3.5 to 3.75 percent in some cases] if people don’t buy houses now, they miss the best opportunity in their lifetime . . . It’s important for us to get our clients out there to understand whether its millennial or retiree.”

Harris was speaking at a Broker Breakfast on Thursday presented by The Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association’s Sales & Marketing Council at Bluewater Waterfront Grill in Wrightsville Beach. Also participating were Chris Livengood, vice president of sales for Intracoastal Realty; Mike Keenan of BB&T; Tim Milam, president of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage; Stephen Owens of Nationwide Owens Insurance; and Brian Eckel, of GHK Cape Fear Development and co-founder of Cape Fear Commercial.

“It’s a great market. This market’s going to end up being probably the fourth largest market in our community’s history, but it doesn’t feel that way. It’s kind of a cautious optimism I should say,” Livengood said.

Certain price points are at a premium, the panelists said, because of the inventory of homes at many price points is shrinking.

WRAR statistics show that during the second quarter of this year, Harris said, there were 6,200 showings of homes in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range, 21,000 showings of homes in the $150,000 to $400,000 range, or about 69 percent of the market.

"So that tells us what buyers are looking, for but it’s a hard thing because there’s no inventory," Harris said.

He said some homeowners who bought at the height of the market, when some home's prices were inflated before the economic downturn, are waiting before selling.

"I think we’re going to see those houses that were purchased in '06 stay hidden for a while, and as the market comes back I think you’re going to see them come out hopefully at a more realistic price," he said.

He said he also expects some owners of older homes to renovate rather than sell for a while.

"Other than new construction there’s not a whole lot of good resale properties . . .  in good, safe neighborhoods," Harris said.

What will happen, asked Broker Breakfast moderator Rob Kaiser, publisher of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, if or when interest rates go up? 

Milam responded that based on what he's researched and heard from other company leaders, he doesn't think interest rates would go up over the next year, and he's not concerned about interest rates except when it comes to the buying power of first-time homebuyers. He said in some cases, a lack of jobs in the region has seems to have led to fewer first-time homebuyers getting into the Wilmington real estate market.

People are moving here, but "they've got to have better salaries so they can buy houses and stay here," Harris said. 

Another concern is the potential increase in costs to develop homes if more strict development regulations are approved by city and county leaders.

"New development ordinances on both the city and the county sides are in process now," said Tyler Newman, president and CEO of Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, before the start of Thursday's discussion. 

Newman encouraged those who attended to get involved in the process as those development ordinances are being written.

"It’s going to be difficult to build or sell or invest in Wilmington and New Hanover County if you’ve got policies and procedures that aren’t helpful to you," Newman said. "The second part of that is the elections this fall have consequences and having three votes on the [New Hanover County Board of Commissioners] level, three votes that understand what you guys do as an industry is important  . . .I would encourage you to get involved with what’s going on with local elections."

Eckel described the rewriting of local development ordinances as "the biggest headwind everybody in this room is going to face. It is getting so expensive to develop lots and deliver to builders because of regulations."