New Bern Waterfront Homes

Waterfront Homes for Sale

In the past year I have sold 18 waterfront homes and believe we are starting to see some signs that waterfront home prices are starting to stabilize and could start tracking up. When you combine prices and interest rates owning a waterfront home has never been more affordable. If you are on the sideline, you better get in the hunt or you might wait to long. So call the New Bern waterfront expert today to help you find the best waterfront property for you.

New Bern and area home sales

Currently, there are 1387 homes listed for sale in our MLS System. Of these 90 are listed as Bank Owned, and 48 are listed as Short Sales.

During the past year there were 1214 homes sold in our MLS.  This equates to a little over a year absorption rate, not good news if you are a seller. However each price range varies in days on the market before a sale takes place and list price to sells price ratios. If you happen to be in a good price range you could expect to sell in under 120 days. When a house is priced to sell, buyers and buyers agents realize this, and will often make an offer closer to the asking price.

Although the number of bank owned properties is about as high as I have seen it, it is relatively low compared to the market as a whole, about 6%. Interestingly enough, bank owned properties accounted for about 16% of sales in the last year. This probably indicates that banks will get aggressive on their sales price especially when they are not sold in a reasonable time frame.

Year to date home sales are about the same as last year volume wise. Total dollar volume is however down 3%. I am not sure, but believe, this is due to home prices still sliding south.

New Home Sales


There are 154 new homes listed for sale in our MLS. In the last 365 days  237 new homes sold. Of these new home sales, 107 were priced from $150,000-$200,000 This compares to 282 new home sales in the year prior and 330 the year before that. Why are sales down 50% from 2 years ago? I believe this is largely due to banks being very cautious about construction loan lending, more folks looking at renting instead of buying, and attractive existing home prices.

I have read some words of encouragement regarding some housing markets, especially those that were hit the hardest. However, I believe the market will improve when the economy starts to create jobs, and I am not real confident the current President knows how to do this.

Dealing with the unknown

The Grunt is feeling a little tense right now. It is not because of the market or the economy. It is because the Grunt is expecting a new next door neighbor.

Back in 2009, the Grunt wrote about another noisy neighbor.

A letter to another 800lbs gorilla

That year management put their foot down and I never heard from them again. However, I got some cold stares from them and others associated with them but it was worth the peace and quiet.

I suspected something was up back in the fall of 2011  when I spotted the Gorilla's significant other being congratulated. I assumed it was because he proposed to her.

It was far more worse. She was pregnant.

Around February of 2012, the baby was born. And it was bliss. The only noise I heard were the cries of a baby.

But I knew the clock was ticking. The apartment they lived in was adequate for two but for three people, even with just a baby, it was too small. And soon they were gone.

I took certain steps to protect myself when new neighbors moved in but they resulted in failure. 

Recently, I smelled the odor of paint permeating from next door and I began to get concerned. The next day my worst fears were confirmed. There would be new tenants moving in.

I am not out of options yet. But I would rather not exercise them.

My state of mind in is rather odd. It is business as usual but I am aware that very soon I may have trouble on my hands. If that is the case. Then it means I have to start process all over again. Which I am not looking forward to.

Of course I might be overreacting. The new tenants may be people who despise loud music as much as I do. So all of this hand wringing might be moot. But in all honesty, I am expecting to deal with the tenants of hell.