More homes sold in Brunswick County in June this year compared to the same month last year, but the county's total sales volume decreased by more than $14 million, according to statistics released Wednesday.

A drop in the number of buyers purchasing luxury homes in the $1 million and up price range resulted in the sales volume decline, officials with the Brunswick County Association of Realtors said. For example, in June 2015, six homes located on Bald Head Island and Ocean Isle Beach with prices of more than $1 million sold, compared to one home in the same category in June of this year, according to BCAR.

"The million-dollar-plus market has kind of cooled off a little bit," said Jim Goodman, president of BCAR. 

Subsequently, BCAR's numbers, pulled from the N.C. Regional MLS and covering all of Brunswick County for both June 2016 and June 2015, also showed a 10 percent decline in the average sales price, from $259,916 to $236,190. 

But the total number of units sold increased by 11 percent, rising from 342 to 386 this June, according to BCAR's numbers. And officials expect July's statistics to soar.

"July will for sure be the best month so far this year," said Goodman, basing the prediction on the number of closed and pending sales this month. "You can never really time when buyers come into the market, but I think the June closed sales is just the result of a really good spring. People come down in the spring and 45 to 60 days later, they close. I think more and more people are retiring, moving south. We had a great spring weather-wise, and it just brought more buyers into the marketplace."

BCAR CEO Cynthia Cumbie said in a news release that the county's real estate market "continues to show strength and consistent momentum. The latest sales numbers demonstrate that more and more people are finding out what a great place this is to live, work and raise a family ... We saw strong numbers last year and the latest statistics give us many reasons to be optimistic about steady growth in the second half of 2016." 

She said currently the average number of days on market for homes in Brunswick County is 131, a figure that's 19 percent lower than it was during the same period last year.
 

Brunswick home sales stats for June 

Listings	Units sold	Avg. sale price	Total volume
2015: 592	342	$259,916	$105,530,000
2016: 487	386	$236,190	$91,171,000
-17.7%	11.4%	-10.04%	-15.74%