Just under two weeks after Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, Realtors were out showing homes in Wilmington on Thursday to potential buyers.

Meanwhile, they've also been putting homes under contract. 

Tim Milam, president of Wilmington-based Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage, said while the hurricane has devastated parts of the Cape Fear region and Southeastern North Carolina where the damage is still being calculated, he believes the housing market will recover.

Milam said a three-day (Monday-Wednesday) total from his agents this week showed that 61 homes worth $15.1 million went under contract. He estimated that about three out of four of those contracts were written in the days after the slow-moving Florence left the area.

"Certainly there's been some cancellations," Milam said, referring to contracts that were in place before the storm. "But we're seeing, for the most part, that that's been relatively minimal." 

Milam said he didn't have a percentage of cancellations as of Thursday morning.

"We're talking to a lot of the agents, and the managers talk to them and I get feedback," he said. "Here's what I'm hearing overall: Most of the people still want to go through with the purchase. So now it's a matter of let's get the repairs done and they still want to buy it." 

He said the company has in recent days been focused on helping those who sustained major losses, including 30 of Sea Coast Advantage's more than 500 agents who were displaced by the storm and three staff members whose homes were destroyed.

Thousands of structures in Pender County, including houses, are expected to be counted as total losses because of record flooding in Pender, while other portions of the region also experienced major damage to a number of properties, including in northern New Hanover County and parts of Brunswick County.

Jessica Loeper, communications and outreach coordinator for New Hanover, said the county's Building Safety Department is working on the final damage assessment, and the total might be available by early next week.

Without discounting the tragedies, Milam and other leaders in the real estate industry remain optimistic.

"I think we feel very strongly that the market is going to come back quickly," said Jeff Sweyer, owner of Wilmington-based Century 21 Sweyer & Associates, in an email Thursday. "Buyers from out of the market have already started to show up (from previously scheduled house-hunting trips) and not been deterred by the storm. There is a general sense that most properties that were under contract before the storm will still close (might have small delays if properties had damage and need repairs). While we are definitely sensitive to those that suffered tremendous loss (and need to keep them in our prayers and thoughts and help them financially to recover) I think most people are breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t as bad as it once was predicted to be."

Cape Fear Realtors has advised buyers "to take all the care and diligence they need to inspect the property before moving forward, and sellers may need to update their disclosures to the property."
 
Fred Gainey, a Realtor and this year's president of CFR, said in an announcement this week, “Gratefully, we are hearing reports from brokers, lenders and insurance companies across the market that they are responding quickly and assessing each property. Buyers can get insurance policies written, so contracts are moving forward."

As far as timing, Milam said, "We think that what's going to happen with the market is that the sales we would have made at the end of September will not necessarily be lost. We think they're going to be pushed back." 

That means the number of sales in September and October will decline, but November and December will likely show the market bouncing back, Milam said. 

CFR and Sea Coast Advantage are among the groups and businesses that have posted real estate advice on their websites for dealing with the outcome of Florence.