For a buyer who wants a new house in the $260s to the low $400s inside half an hour of Wilmington, yes, and Bolivia offers more of that than almost anywhere else in Brunswick County: 128 of the 285 priced residential listings in the 28422 area were new construction when we counted on October 18, 2026. What you give up is a downtown, a grocery store and a middle school the state grades D, and what you have to verify on every single address is the town line, the school zone and whether the house is on a well.
Bolivia gets asked about far more than its size suggests. The town itself held 254 people in the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2024 estimates, and the county parcel layer holds 155 parcels inside the town limits. The 28422 address is a different thing entirely, reaching from the US 17 corridor south and west to the Lockwood Folly River and Sunset Harbor, and that larger area is where the building is happening.
That is why this question is harder than it looks. Two houses with the same Bolivia mailing address can sit in different school zones, on opposite sides of the town tax line, and one can be on county water while the other is on a private well. We check all three before a buyer writes an offer, because we have seen each of them surprise someone late.
What is actually being built in Bolivia right now?
New construction here splits into two tiers. The first is production builders on smaller lots. D.R. Horton’s Eagle Creek starts at $259,999 with plans from 1,257 square feet and three to five bedrooms, and its Bella Point starts at $284,999 with homes currently listed from $294,648 to $358,949 across 1,343 to 2,511 square feet, both read from the builder’s own community pages on October 20, 2026. Bella Point was also showing reductions on specific houses that day, including one at $358,949 marked down from $369,149, under a banner reading “Big home savings end November 1.” Mungo Homes, one of the builders we represent buyers with, is selling River Tide Farms in the high $200s with fourteen homes for sale and seven floor plans, on the builder’s published range as of October 19, 2026.
The second tier is gated and semi-custom, and it starts about $140,000 higher. Trusst Builder Group is selling three Bolivia communities from the low $400s: Palmetto Creek, gated with a clubhouse, resort pool and six miles of trails; RiverSea Plantation, gated across 540 acres on the Lockwood Folly River with a boat ramp and dock; and Winding River Plantation, a golf community built around its riverside River House. All three run 1,651 to 3,360 square feet, on the builder’s published from-prices as of October 19, 2026 on our Trusst Builder Group page.
- 389 active listings in the Bolivia 28422 area; 128 of the 285 priced residential listings were new construction, about 45 percent Coldwell Banker Bolivia search, read October 18, 2026, via our Bolivia guide
- Median list price $324,999, range $145,000 to $1,370,000, median 87 days on market Coldwell Banker Bolivia search, read October 18, 2026
- D.R. Horton Eagle Creek from $259,999; Bella Point from $284,999, homes listed $294,648 to $358,949 D.R. Horton community pages, read October 20, 2026
- Trusst Builder Group: Palmetto Creek, RiverSea Plantation and Winding River Plantation all from the low $400s Builder’s published from-prices as of October 19, 2026
- Brunswick County median sale price $394,000, up 3.7 percent year over year, 93 days on market, 2,334 active listings, about 38 percent of them already price cut Our Brunswick County market update, three months ending September 2026
- Property tax 0.342 per $100 of value outside the town limits, 0.392 inside them Brunswick County tax rates table, tax year 2026, plus the Town of Bolivia’s 0.05
What the builder incentives are actually worth here
At a 7.40 percent 30-year rate, reported by Freddie Mac as of October 15, 2026 and 113 basis points above a year earlier, the incentive is often worth more than the price cut. Mungo is publishing a 2-1 buydown through Silverton Mortgage on eligible homes: 3.49 percent in year one, 4.49 percent in year two and 5.49 percent for years three through thirty, at a 6.237 percent APR, on contracts written on or after September 14, 2026 with the loan closing before January 12, 2027. The alternative is up to $20,000 in savings using the same lender partner. On a $400,000 home the published buydown costs the builder about $8,500. That tells you which one to take: the $20,000 credit is worth more if you hold the loan, the buydown if you expect to refinance. We run both against your actual loan rather than the brochure.
Trusst works differently and says so. It publishes no standing promotion, because its model is to include finishes other builders sell as upgrades, so the honest comparison is base price against base price, feature for feature. On a semi-custom builder the real negotiation is the homesite premium, the close date and which options come off the sheet.
The resale competition is what keeps those incentives coming. Our Brunswick County market update puts the county at 2,334 active listings and a 93-day median for the three months ending September 2026, with roughly 38 percent of listings already carrying a price cut. In Bolivia itself the median was 87 days. A builder with a rate buydown is competing against sellers who have already waited three months, which gives you room to negotiate on either side of the street. Our new construction versus resale comparison lays out the full trade.
Three things to check on the specific lot
The town line
Brunswick County bills 0.342 per $100 of value for 2026 and the Town of Bolivia adds 0.05, so the rate inside the town limits is 0.392 and outside it 0.342. On the area’s $324,999 median list price that gap is about $162 a year. Most new construction sits on the lower rate, but a listing will not always tell you which side of the line it is on.
The school zone
In the zone maps of Brunswick County Schools’ 2025-26 demographic study, dated March 24, 2026, the Bolivia Elementary zone nests inside the South Brunswick Middle and South Brunswick High zones. The builders’ own pages show something different for their communities: on October 20, 2026 D.R. Horton listed Virginia Williamson Elementary and Cedar Grove Middle for Bella Point, and Supply Elementary and Cedar Grove Middle for Eagle Creek. Both can be right, because the 28422 mailing area is much larger than the Bolivia Elementary zone. Confirm the address with the district before you assume anything about the school.
Water, sewer and the well
The town runs no water or sewer utility of its own. Brunswick County Public Utilities serves the area where its lines reach, and outside that footprint wells and septic systems are normal: of the 323 wells in the county’s mapped layer, 136 sit within three miles of the Bolivia crossroads. The platted communities above are generally on county utilities, but acreage and infill lots often are not. When we read the town’s site on October 18, 2026 it still carried the county’s August 17, 2026 Stage 2 Mandatory Water Conservation Alert.
Flooding here is mostly a waterfront question rather than a Bolivia question. We queried the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer at 26 points across the area on October 18, 2026 and twenty came back Zone X, including the town center, the county complex and the college. The exceptions were on the water: Palm Street SE at Sunset Harbor returned Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 12 feet, and Herring Gull Court SE near the Waterway Zone AE at 11 feet. Pull the determination on the parcel anyway.
Three honest cautions. South Brunswick Middle carries a School Performance Grade of D with a growth status of Not Met in the Department of Public Instruction’s 2025-26 release and sits on the state’s continually low-performing list, which matters more to a family with a rising sixth grader than any incentive. Brunswick County’s next revaluation takes effect January 1, 2027, so a 2026 buyer should expect the assessed value to reset shortly after closing. And the county landfill is inside this ZIP, at 172 Landfill Road NE. If you want walkable amenities, a shorter Wilmington commute and more builders to choose from, Leland is the better fit and we will tell you so.
Related questions people also ask
How much does a new construction home cost in Bolivia NC?
It depends which tier you are shopping, and the two are far apart. Production builders here publish from-prices in the high $250s to the high $280s, with finished inventory homes running into the mid $300s, while the gated and semi-custom communities start in the low $400s and run above that with homesite premiums and options. Ask any builder for the base price with the homesite premium and the options you actually want, because the from-price is rarely the number you will sign.
Do new construction homes in Bolivia have city water and sewer?
Some do and some do not, and it depends on where the county utility lines reach rather than on the mailing address. The Town of Bolivia operates no water or sewer system of its own, so service comes from Brunswick County Public Utilities where it is available, and wells and septic systems are common outside that footprint. Ask the builder in writing which utilities serve the specific lot, and have the well and septic inspected if they apply.
Is new construction in Bolivia a better buy than a resale?
Often yes at the moment, mostly because of financing rather than the house. Builders here are competing with rate buydowns and closing credits that resale sellers in the same price band cannot match, and a new home is built to current wind and flood code, which affects what you pay to insure it. The counterweights are the homesite premium, the options that are not in the base price, and the mature trees and known tax bill of an established neighborhood. Price the same monthly payment both ways with the incentive included, and the answer usually becomes obvious.
Pick two communities from the lists above, one from each tier, and ask us to pull the tax rate, utility status, school zone and flood determination on the specific lots before you tour them. That one page is what decides this question. Register us as your agent before your first model-home visit and we will build it with you, read the builder’s contract against the standard North Carolina form, and negotiate the incentive against your actual loan.
Sources: Our Bolivia neighborhood guide, read October 20, 2026, for the Coldwell Banker listing counts of October 18, 2026, the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer queries of the same date, the Brunswick County tax rates table for tax year 2026 plus the Town of Bolivia rate, the county mapped wells layer, the August 17, 2026 water conservation alert, the Census Bureau Vintage 2024 population estimate and the Brunswick County Schools 2025-26 demographic study dated March 24, 2026. D.R. Horton Bella Point and Eagle Creek community pages, read October 20, 2026. Our Mungo Homes and Trusst Builder Group pages, as of October 19, 2026. Our Brunswick County market update, three months ending September 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, as of October 15, 2026. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction 2025-26 school performance release.
