In recent perusings of Wilmington real estate websites, we discovered major discrepancies between agents’ reports on our current market condition. This prompted us to do some extensive research and number crunching - the results of which you can read below.

It is my opinion that 2005 was the death of the “last great Wilmington Real Estate Market” (note- not the last as in never again, but the last as in most recent). Many agents thought that it was their arrival to the Valhalla of Sales but a look at the data indicates that the fervor in the market up until September 2005 was actually the death throes of a market that had run too hot for too long. In the preceding 5 years, inventory levels had been gradually shrinking and shrinking until in late 2004, the level was so low that a buying frenzy was on. This consumed most of the remaining inventory and caused prices to skyrocket. One of the interesting side effects of this market was that people were placing contracts on new construction homes that would not close for up to 12 months (and longer in some cases). It is the sale of those new construction homes that underpinned the market in 2006.

As is the natural course for a market a correction was due. We are currently in the middle of that correction and I believe we will continue to trend towards a buyers market with no balance returning until Spring of ‘08 at the earliest.

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