What's usually a slow month for home sales proved atypical for the Brunswick County market, according to statistics released Monday.

The number of homes sold in the county in January – 242 – showed a 29 percent increase over January 2016, when 188 were sold, based on the numbers from the Brunswick County Association of Realtors.

“While January is typically one of the slowest months for transactions and overall real estate activity, our market has continued to show strength entering 2017,” said BCAR CEO Cynthia Walsh in a news release Monday.

The number of new listings increased by almost 30 percent in January, while the absorption rate dropped to 6.9 months, helping balance out the increase in listings, the release said. 

Some of the market's strength comes from buyers investing now in retirement and vacation properties in Brunswick, said Ben Styers, president of BCAR. 

"There's a tremendous boom here, and people are just taking advantage of the prices before they start going upwards," Styers said.

The average sale price for homes in Brunswick County increased from $224,478 in January last year to nearly $240,000 last month, an almost 7 percent rise.

The number of homes sold in the Wilmington area in January hit an historic high, increasing by nearly 41 percent, according to numbers provided earlier this month by Cape Fear Realtors and covering New Hanover, Pender and northern Brunswick counties.
 

Brunswick County's January home sales

	Listings	Units Sold	Avg. Sales Price	Total Sales Volume
2017	557	242	$239,739	$58,016,876
2016	431	188	$224,478	$42,200,000
% Change	29.1%	28.7%	6.8%	37.5%