Pender County.
Hampstead, Surf City, Burgaw and the Topsail corridor — the tightest inventory of the three counties. Refreshed monthly.
The read
A big median, a small sample.
Pender is the smallest of the three markets and this month it posted the largest number. The three-month median sale price is $499,000, up 16.1% year over year, days on market stretched to 83 from 51, and September closings fell to 109 from 120 a year earlier.
Read that 16.1% carefully. Pender closes around a hundred homes a month, so a three-month median moves on which houses happened to sell nearly as much as on what houses are worth — and the county’s median list price is up less than 1% over the same year, which is the better guide to what sellers are actually asking. The steadier signal is supply: active listings slipped to 430 from 439 and listings with a price cut are down about 19%, the only county in the region where both moved the seller’s way. Hampstead is still doing the heavy lifting.
Three counties, one region
Where Pender 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 |
| Brunswick →Brunswick County | $394,000+3.7% YoY | 93 days+29 vs last year | 577+3.4% YoY | 2,334+2.0% YoY | $2,182/mo |
| PenderPender 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 →
Hampstead
A Wilmington suburb with Pender taxes.
Twenty minutes north on Highway 17 and functionally part of Wilmington, with Pender County taxes and Topsail-area schools. WyndWater, Blake Farm at Scotts Hill and a pipeline of newer communities — East Wynd, Brookfield Branch, Sagebrook — are adding supply, and the bypass has changed the commute. It is where Wilmington buyers priced out of New Hanover go first.
Current Hampstead new-construction communities and incentives →
Surf City & inland
Topsail Island and Burgaw.
Surf City and the Topsail beaches are holding value better than the beaches to the south — a second-home and rental market with a strong year-round core. The coastal-insurance math that applies in Carolina Beach applies here: get the quote during due diligence.
Burgaw, Rocky Point and inland Pender are the region’s most affordable land and the longest commutes. Larger lots, septic and well are the norm, and days on market run well above the county median, which is exactly the negotiating room some buyers want.
What it means
Buying or selling in Pender.
Be ready in Hampstead. Take your time inland.
- Inventory is the tightest in the region and still shrinking. Well-priced Hampstead homes move; come pre-approved.
- Inland Pender is where the negotiating room is: longer days on market, larger lots, more flexible sellers.
- Do not read the county median as your budget. On about a hundred sales a month it swings with the mix, so ask for the comps on the specific street.
Fewer rivals than anywhere else on the coast.
- Active listings are down year over year and price cuts are down about 19%. You have less competition here than in either neighboring county — real pricing power, though 83 days is still the county median.
- Buyers are comparing you to new builds at WyndWater, Blake Farm and East Wynd. Lean on lot size, trees, established location, no HOA.
- Coastal listings: expect insurance questions early and have last year’s premium ready.
The payment
What the median Pender home costs each month.
$499,000 with 20% down is a $399,200 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.