October’s luxury homes sale numbers were a little disappointing to some Realtors.
 
Unlike the local home sales market overall, the inventory of luxury homes has been outweighing demand in recent months throughout the Cape Fear region. Only seven homes with prices of $1 million or more sold last month in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, compared to 14 in October 2015, according to a report compiled by Just For Buyers Realty from the N.C. Regional MLS. 
 
Some say one of the factors in the condition of the luxury market has been uncertainty about this year’s presidential race, which voters were deciding Tuesday throughout the U.S. and locally at polls that will close in New Hanover County at 7:30 p.m.  

"It’s hard to tell how much the election has caused that so much, but it’s always a healthy thing to get past uncertainty, and the election certainly has been an uncertain time period," said Chris Livengood, vice president of sales for Intracoastal Realty Corp. "The luxury product line has much more inventory relative to buyer demand across the nation and Wilmington's no different than that."

Both Livengood and Kathleen Baylies, broker in charge at Just For Buyers Realty, don't see the outcome of the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump having a major impact on local luxury sales.
 
“I think that purchasing a home is usually so much more driven by things that are happening in a person’s life, that if they are on track to make that purchase they probably are going to,” Baylies said. “While the rest of the market is incredibly healthy, the high-end market is still a buyer’s market, and it’s not to say that it’s particularly unhealthy, but it hasn’t recovered in the way that the rest of the market has.”

In the region, the number of units sold was up slightly from September, when six luxury homes were purchased.
 
“Last year (2015), October was a surprisingly strong month. We were hopeful we might see that kind of bump again this October. Even so, this past month’s numbers are in line with general expectations,” Baylies said.
 
Currently, the region has a a 2.8-year supply of luxury properties available, according to Baylies' report (shown below). Livengood said New Hanover County by itself has about a 1.5-year supply. A five- to six-month supply is considered healthy. 

But despite the large supply, in the past 12 months year-to-date, more than 90 homes priced at $1 million or more have sold in New Hanover County, Livengood said.

"While we have inventory there’s still a lot of buyers looking for that property and there’s some new construction, custom builds going up in that price point ... Those are all real positive signs for the category," Livengood said.
 
The most expensive home to sell in October was 2324 Ocean Point Drive in Landfall. Listed by Intracoastal Realty Corp. for $2.195 million, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,200-square-foot home overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway was purchased Oct. 5 for $2 million.

 

Tri-county luxury home sale numbers in October

	New Hanover County Oct 2016  / Oct 2015		Brunswick County Oct 2016  / Oct 2015		Pender County Oct 2016 / Oct 2015
Newly Listed	7	8	5	4	0	1
Went Under Contract	5	3	2	4	0	0
Closed # Homes Sold	4	8	3	5	0	1
Total Closed $ Volume	$5.51m	$17.53m	$3.56m	$6.76m	0	$1.50m
Total Current Listings	138	n/a	80	n/a	16	n/a