Observations in Wilmington, New Bern and Albemarle Sound

While searching for coastal North Carolina real estate and Inner Banks marina communities, here’s what we observed last week: 

• Outer Banks - In the northern end of North Carolina, the Inner Banks are still predominately farmland and undeveloped land. Boaters can’t help but love the protected calm Albemarle Sound on the Inner Banks. The area was refreshing and relaxing to sense, after coming from a fast paced metropolitan city. The northern end of the Outer Banks we found particularly appealing; Currituck, Duck and Corolla. We've never seen so many joggers, bikers and walkers. The local farmers markets, cute waterfront restaurants and street curb appeal is charming. We did miss seeing the wild mustangs on Corolla’s beaches because we needed a permit to drive on the beach and ran out of time. Further south in Kitty Hawk, t-shirt shops, chain restaurants and dense traffic dominate the landscape on the middle Outer Banks. At the end of the banks, the island of Ocracoke was intriguing. We wish we had more time to spend there. Taking the ferry adds quite a bit of time to your travel to and from the Outer Banks. Owning a vacation or second home on the Outer Banks brings with it busy traffic and difficult access to the islands. There are plenty of Inner Banks marina communities to choose from.

• Historic - The generic use of the word ‘historic’. What is truly historic? 50 years, 100 years or 300 years old? In cell phone terms, historic is 12 months. We noticed some cities and tourism bureau’s have done an extraordinary job of bringing local businesses back into the downtowns. Without great restaurants, shopping, easy parking and people feeling safe walking the streets, people will choose newer malls and urban town centers to hang out. To us, New Bern wins the award for the most attractive 300 year old city in coastal North Carolina and is a great place to find an Inner Banks marina community. 272 year old Wilmington has certainly stepped up to the plate and has a lot of eye candy. A movie was being filmed in downtown Wilmington while we were there creating chaos and excitement. To us, 217 year old Elizabeth City missed the mark in Albermarle Sound and is trumped by the quaint 289 year old smaller city of Edenton NC. Shallotte we were told was the ‘Mayberry of the Coast’. Sorry Shallotte, we've been to Mayberry and you are on the right track, creating curb appeal, lining the streets with hanging flower baskets and flags. What 112 year old Shallotte has which most old cities don’t are new department stores, plenty of great restaurants and quick bridge access to Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach. 

• Wilmington NC Traffic - In Wilmington NC, we noticed the intense traffic on State Road 17 North heading into Wilmington verses State Road 74/76 East. If the traffic into Wilmington North Carolina is dense now, wait 5-10 years. Don't be afraid to branch out and live 30 minutes away from a popular city. As one of the best cities to retire in North Carolina, it will continue to expand. Give yourself elbow room when searching for coastal North Carolina real estate if you don’t want to be caught in rush hour traffic every day in a big city. 

• Promises - Some buyers who purchased property during the real estate frenzy are pretty irate if their real estate developer has not completed the amenities promised. Rightfully so. However, without sales, where do buyers think the funding will come from? Who could have possibly predicted this economic collapse? Instead of throwing lawsuits around left and right, buyers would be more effective if they came together and found ways to assist the real estate developer in promoting their master planned community to make sales. Share testimonials on why your coastal North Carolina real estate development is the best place to live. If a real estate developer is laden with legal defense costs, you can be certain there won’t be funds to build your community swimming pool. When we score real estate communities, we don’t score promises. We score the quality of amenities which exist at the master planned communities.

• Build when you want still haunts us as a good feature of a community. Why? When you purchase in a new community, you can expect construction traffic for years, even decades while all the homes are built in large communities. Allowing buyers to build whenever you want helps real estate developers make a sale and allows buyers to stage the expense. However, it is not necessarily great for those who have now built their dream home and are ready to enjoy Mister Rogers quiet neighborhood. Dump trucks and contractors are noisy. To us, master planned communities where real estate developers have required construction within 2-5 years of the purchase are the smarter long term planners. Get’er done! 

Overall, people are friendly and darn happy in North Carolina which continues to remind us why so many Baby Boomers have their minds set on moving to the best cities to retire in North Carolina.

If you'd like our opinion on which are the best Inner Banks marina communities, reach out to us and say 'hello' at info@realestatesorecard.com. We're happy to help.