Brunswick County.
Leland, Southport, Oak Island and the Brunswick beaches — written for buyers reading from out of state as much as for the neighbors. Refreshed monthly.
The read
Prices up. Still the slowest.
Brunswick is the region’s volume market and still its slowest. The three-month median sale price is $394,000, up 3.7% year over year, but the typical home takes 93 days to sell against 64 a year ago, and September closings rose about 3% to 577. With roughly 2,334 active listings, buyers here have more to choose from than New Hanover and Pender combined.
The split inside the county matters more than the county average. New construction along Highway 17 in Leland moves on builder incentives; resale on the coast is where the 93-day median is actually felt. About 38% of active listings countywide have already cut their price, which is the clearest measure of how much patience this market is asking of sellers.
Three counties, one region
Where Brunswick sits against its neighbors.
Brunswick has the most inventory and the slowest pace, Pender has the least inventory and the biggest price jump on the fewest sales, and New Hanover sells fastest but is the only one of the three still down year over year.
| County | Median sale price | Days on market | Homes sold | Active listings | P&I on the median* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Hanover →New Hanover County | $464,000-1.3% YoY | 61 days+27 vs last year | 339+0.0% YoY | 1,251+7.6% YoY | $2,570/mo |
| BrunswickBrunswick County | $394,000+3.7% YoY | 93 days+29 vs last year | 577+3.4% YoY | 2,334+2.0% YoY | $2,182/mo |
| Pender →Pender County | $499,000+16.1% YoY | 83 days+32 vs last year | 109-9.2% YoY | 430-2.1% YoY | $2,764/mo |
*Principal and interest at this week’s 7.40% 30-year rate with 20% down. See the full mortgage update →
Leland
The region’s new-construction engine.
Brunswick Forest, Compass Pointe, Del Webb at Mallory Creek and a dozen production communities drive the county’s volume. Builders here compete with rate buydowns, closing credits and upgrade packages that resale sellers in the same price band have to price against. Fifteen minutes from downtown Wilmington across the bridge, with a lower price point and lower taxes, Leland is where most relocating buyers start.
See what Logan, Mungo and HHHunt are building and offering this month →
The coast
Southport, Oak Island and the beaches.
Southport, St. James, Oak Island and Holden Beach are the resale-heavy end of the county and where the 93-day median is felt most. A beach-market home is expensive to keep showing-ready for three months. Well-priced coastal homes still move; overpriced ones are why the county average is what it is.
The west end — Calabash, Shallotte, Ocean Isle, Sunset Beach — is the county’s most affordable coast and increasingly a new-construction market of its own.
What it means
Buying or selling in Brunswick.
Real choice, real leverage.
- Roughly 2,334 homes to choose from and a median of three months to sell: expect to negotiate.
- Compare new-construction incentives against resale honestly. A builder buydown that starts in the 3s, plus a closing credit, can beat a resale that is $20,000 cheaper on paper.
- If you are touring new communities, register your agent on the first visit or you may lose representation on that purchase.
Your competition is a builder.
- Price against a new build with a rate buydown, not against what your neighbor sold for in 2024.
- Southport and Oak Island resale sellers should plan for 90-plus days and set the showing calendar accordingly.
- Lean on what a builder cannot offer: mature trees, an established street, no construction traffic, a known HOA.
The payment
What the median Brunswick home costs each month.
$394,000 with 20% down is a $315,200 loan. Here is the principal and interest at this week’s rate, last week’s, and a year ago.
Rates are Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed average. Full mortgage update → · Current builder rate buydowns →
Region-wide
Our latest full-region updates.
Cape Fear Market Update — October 26, 2026
New Hanover's year-over-year decline narrowed to 1.3% on September data and the 30-year fixed eased to 7.32%, its first drop since August.
Read the update →Cape Fear Market Update — October 12, 2026
The 30-year fixed climbed to 7.40%, adding about $100 a month to a $400,000 loan since our last update, while county medians held roughly flat.
Read the update →Cape Fear Market Update — September 28, 2026
New Hanover prices turned negative year over year while Brunswick's gain narrowed, and the 30-year fixed crossed 7% at 7.03%.
Read the update →Sources: Redfin county housing-market pages, read October 17, 2026 — median sale price and days on market are the three months ending September 2026; homes sold is September 2026 against September 2025. Redfin’s downloadable county tracker was still showing May 2026 data on the day of this update, so the figures above come from Redfin’s county pages rather than the tracker. Realtor.com via FRED — active listings, median list price and price-reduced listings, September 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 15, 2026. County-level figures, not a valuation of any specific property. Payment figures are principal and interest only on a 30-year fixed loan with 20% down; they exclude taxes, insurance and HOA and are illustrative, not a loan offer.
Want a read on your street?
County medians are a starting point. We will tell you what your neighborhood is doing this month.