Across the 117 active St. James Plantation listings on October 9, 2026, asking prices ran $135,000 to $2,698,000 with a median of $649,000, and the detached houses alone ran $379,000 to $2,698,000 with a median of $799,000. Anything here under $400,000 is almost always a condo, not a house.
We get this question from buyers who have already decided they like the place and now want to know what it costs to get in. The honest framing is that St. James is not one market. It is four, and they trade at very different numbers: detached houses, townhomes, condos and bare homesites. A single median across all of them hides more than it shows.
One caution before the numbers. What follows is what sellers are asking, read off a dated listing count, not what buyers are closing at. No public source publishes a verified sold-price series for St. James that we are willing to quote, and in a county where the typical home now takes 93 days to sell, asking and closing are not the same number. We say more about that gap below.
What the listings actually showed
Our St. James Plantation community guide pulled all five pages of the Coldwell Banker St. James page on October 9, 2026 and de-duplicated by MLS number to 153 records: 117 active and 36 pending. Every one carried a Southport, NC 28461 mailing address, which is the address St. James uses.
- 117 active listings, $135,000 to $2,698,000, median asking price $649,000 Coldwell Banker St. James page, read October 9, 2026
- 74 detached houses, $379,000 to $2,698,000, median $799,000 Coldwell Banker St. James page, read October 9, 2026
- 21 condos, $234,000 to $595,000, median $315,000 Coldwell Banker St. James page, read October 9, 2026
- 8 townhomes, $429,000 to $1,014,000, and 14 homesites, $135,000 to $515,000 Coldwell Banker St. James page, read October 9, 2026
- Median value of owner-occupied homes in the Town of St. James: $636,800, plus or minus $31,813 American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024
- Brunswick County median sale price: $394,000, with 93 days on market against 64 a year earlier Tidal Realty Partners Brunswick County market update, three months ending September 2026
Put the survey number next to the listing number and you get a useful picture. What people already own here is worth about $636,800 at the median. What is for sale is asking $649,000 at the median, and $799,000 if you only count houses. The gap between those two figures is partly that the nicer and newer homes are the ones on the market, and partly that sellers in a slow county start high.
Why the condos pull the median down
Twenty-one of the 117 active listings are condos, and their median asking price is $315,000. That is less than half the median for a detached house. If you are shopping a budget under $400,000 and you want to be inside the gate, the condo inventory is the honest answer, and it is a real one. If you want a house with a yard, start your planning at the detached median of $799,000 rather than at the all-in median of $649,000.
The homesites matter too. Fourteen lots were listed from $135,000 to $515,000. A lot plus a build is a different project from buying a finished house, and in Brunswick County it comes with a question about sewer. Our Brunswick County market update tracks the county’s inventory, and our community guide notes that the state had declined to approve Brunswick County sewer line extension permits since November 2025 as of a Port City Daily report on February 24, 2026. If you buy a homesite, get your sewer allocation confirmed in writing.
What the price does not include
Two bills land after closing that are not in any listing price. The property owners association covers the common areas, the private streets, security, the gates, the Beach Club on Oak Island, the parks and the Library. The Clubs at St. James, meaning the golf and the wellness center, are a separate membership that owning a house here does not include.
We are not going to put a dollar figure on either one. The association does not publish a current assessment publicly, and we will not repeat an undated number from a listing site. Ask the seller in writing for the current assessment, the club dues, any initiation deposit, and whether a membership transfers with the house. Do it before due diligence ends, not after.
Taxes, on the other hand, are low and easy to check. Brunswick County’s 2026 rate table sets the county at 0.342 per $100 of value and the Town of St. James at 0.05, a combined 0.392. On the survey’s $636,800 median value that is roughly $2,496 a year, with fire protection billed as a separate county fee and water, sewer and trash coming from Brunswick County rather than the association.
What the monthly number looks like
Freddie Mac’s weekly survey put the 30-year fixed average at 7.18 percent on November 5, 2026. On the $649,000 all-in median with 20 percent down, principal and interest alone come to about $3,517 a month. On the $799,000 detached-house median, about $4,330. On a $315,000 condo, about $1,707. None of those include taxes, insurance, the association assessment or club dues, which is exactly why we ask sellers for those numbers early. Our monthly mortgage update tracks where the rate sits.
These are asking prices, and in this market that distinction has teeth. Brunswick County’s typical home took 93 days to sell in the three months ending September 2026, against 64 a year earlier, and about 38 percent of active listings countywide had already cut their price. St. James sits at the expensive, slower end of that county. So the median asking price of $649,000 is the number sellers put out, not the number buyers paid. We can pull the actual closed comparables on the specific street and home type you are considering, which is the only version of this answer that should drive an offer. One more honest point: the four listing categories here are small samples. Twenty-one condos and eight townhomes are not enough to build a reliable median on, so treat those figures as a range rather than a target.
Related questions people also ask
Are condos in St. James Plantation cheaper than the houses?
Considerably. On October 9, 2026 the 21 active condo listings ran $234,000 to $595,000 with a median asking price of $315,000, while the 74 active detached houses ran $379,000 to $2,698,000 with a median of $799,000. That is the main reason an all-in median across every property type lands lower than what a house actually costs. A buyer shopping under $400,000 inside the gate is almost certainly shopping condos.
Does the purchase price include the golf club membership?
No. The property owners association and the Clubs at St. James are two separate organizations with separate bills, and buying a home gives you the association, not the club. Membership in the golf clubs and the wellness center is purchased separately, and the terms, including any initiation deposit and whether a membership transfers from the seller, vary. Ask for all of it in writing during due diligence rather than relying on what a listing says.
Is St. James Plantation more expensive than the rest of Brunswick County?
Yes, by a wide margin. The Brunswick County median sale price was $394,000 for the three months ending September 2026, while the American Community Survey for 2020 through 2024 puts the median value of owner-occupied homes inside the Town of St. James at $636,800. The gated amenities, the golf and the marina are priced into that difference, and so is the fact that St. James is one of the newer parts of the county, with a median home built in 2011.
Tell us the home type and the budget you are working with, and we will pull the actual closed sales inside St. James for that category, plus the current association assessment and club terms from the seller in writing. If you would rather talk through whether the gate is worth it before you shop, schedule a consultation and we will walk the numbers with you.
Sources: Coldwell Banker St. James listing page, all five pages read October 9, 2026, via our St. James Plantation community guide; American Community Survey 2020 to 2024, Town of St. James; Brunswick County 2026 tax rate table; Port City Daily, Brunswick County sewer permit report, February 24, 2026; Tidal Realty Partners Brunswick County market update, three months ending September 2026; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, November 5, 2026. Monthly payment figures are arithmetic from the published rate and are principal and interest only.
