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 held. The pace didn’t.
Brunswick is the region’s volume market and its slowest. The three-month median sale price is $409,000, up 2.2% year over year, but the typical home now takes 98 days to sell against 67 a year ago, and August closings were down about 8% to 579. With roughly 2,250 active listings, buyers here have more to choose from than in 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 98-day median is actually felt.
Three counties, one region
Where Brunswick sits against its neighbors.
Brunswick has the most inventory and the slowest pace; Pender is the tightest and steadiest; New Hanover is the priciest and the only one where prices are off year over year.
| County | Median sale price | Days on market | Homes sold | Active listings | P&I on the median* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Hanover →New Hanover County | $448,000-3.5% YoY | 58 days+21 vs last year | 396+0.8% YoY | 1,249+10.2% YoY | $2,372/mo |
| BrunswickBrunswick County | $409,000+2.2% YoY | 98 days+31 vs last year | 579-7.8% YoY | 2,250+1.6% YoY | $2,166/mo |
| Pender →Pender County | $477,000+0.5% YoY | 76 days+14 vs last year | 115+3.6% YoY | 423-4.9% YoY | $2,526/mo |
*Principal and interest at this week’s 6.95% 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 98-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 2,250 homes to choose from and a median of three months to sell: expect to negotiate.
- Compare new-construction incentives against resale honestly. A $15,000 closing credit plus a rate buydown 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.
$409,000 with 20% down is a $327,200 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 → · Builder rate buydowns as low as 3.25% →
Region-wide
Our latest full-region updates.
Cape Fear Market Update — September 2026
The latest on the Cape Fear housing market: days on market are stretching out. Here is where prices, days on market, and rates stand.
Read the update →Wilmington NC Real Estate Market Update: August 2026 — Inventory Up 20%, Rates Hold at 6.66%
Inventory across the Cape Fear region is up more than 20% year over year in New Hanover and Brunswick counties, homes are sitting on the market roughly a month longer than they did last…
Read the update →Wilmington NC Real Estate Market Update: July 2026 — Inventory Climbs, Prices Split by County
Wilmington’s housing market keeps splitting in two directions. Sale prices in New Hanover County dropped 3.0% year over year to $480,000, while Pender County pushed the other way — up 6.2% to $476,627. What…
Read the update →Sources: Redfin — median sale price is the three months ending August 2026; days on market and homes sold are August 2026, compared with the same month a year earlier. Realtor.com via FRED — active listings, median list price and price-reduced listings, August 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 17, 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.