What Is a Bald Head Island Home Worth? Reading a Falling Listing Median and Several Sold Medians

Which Bald Head Island number is a price?

Two of the figures are sale prices with a month attached. Realtor.com's $1,250,000 is the median sold price as of May 2026, and Redfin's $1.4 million is the median sale price in February, on five sales. The rest are asking prices or models. Movoto's $1,230,000 is a median list price and Realtor.com's $1,495,000 is a median listing price, 19.6% above the sold median on the same page, a gap this brief computes. Property Focus's $1,308,500 is a median single-family price with no month beyond the page date, and its $1,428,000 is a modeled value for homes that sold in the last year.

The two median listing prices differ by more than the two sold figures. In May Realtor.com showed $1,495,000 and in September Movoto showed $1,230,000, a gap of 21.5%. They are four months apart and from two sources, and a median asking price on an island with about 124 to 142 homes for sale moves when a few large listings come or go. Movoto's page says the median was $1,675,000 in 2025, so its own page shows a fall of 26.6%, and the Realtor.com page shows a fall of 9.39% over the year to May. Both are described as listing medians. The local agent's guide of August 9 puts the median asking price at about $1.6 million, which is 30% above Movoto's September figure and close to the 2025 figure it cites. Three pages cannot all describe the same list.

Redfin's February figure shows how little one month can say. A median of $1.4 million on five sales, up 12.2% on the year, rests on five homes, and the page shows eight a year earlier. The same page shows 286 days on market against 24 a year earlier, and that is a number that moves by hundreds of days when a single long-listed home sells. The page also says homes sell in 61 days in its text. Reading the page as a signal of a trend would be a mistake, and the page is eight months old.

The modeled value is a different kind of number again. Property Focus says homes that sold in the last year had a median modeled value of $1,428,000, which is 9.1% above its median price of $1,308,500, and it says 72 homes sold in 12 months. A modeled value is not a record of what a buyer paid. The page also says 463 homes are fully paid off and 84.8% of properties have more than half their value in equity, figures that describe owners who hold with little debt and are mostly not forced to sell. That is the page's data, and the reading is an inference.

A seller should read the range and not any one figure. Sold prices of about $1.25 million to $1.4 million and asking prices of about $1.23 million to $1.6 million, from five sources, describe a market in which the middle is above a million dollars and the figures are not stable. A home that is not typical, such as an oceanfront estate or a house with a club membership, sits outside the median altogether.

Sources as cited. The measures differ and the figures are not directly comparable. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Is Bald Head Island a buyer market or a seller market?

The pages say both. Realtor.com's May page says the island is a buyer's market, which it defines as a market where the supply of homes is greater than the demand, and a warm market on the Realtor Hotness Index, with homes selling in a median of 66 days. Movoto's page says that in September 2026 the island was a seller's market, which it defines as more people looking to buy than homes available. A local agent's April guide says the island is a high-value, low-inventory coastal market and that this does not mean every property will sell quickly or at any price.

The supply counts do not settle it. Realtor.com shows 142 active listings in May, up 5.88% on the year and up 28.57% over three years. Movoto shows 124 active homes in the autumn, with 2 new and 4 price reductions. Property Focus shows 72 sales in a year. Dividing 142 by 72 gives about 2.0 years of supply at the sales pace, and 124 by 72 gives 1.7, ratios this brief computes. By that crude measure supply is long, which agrees with the buyer's market label. The sales count and the listings count come from different pages, and the count of sales is for residential properties in the past 12 months, so the ratio is a rough sign and not a measure.

The clocks run from 61 days to 126. Realtor.com shows a median of 66 days on market, up 32% on the year and down 32.65% over three years. Redfin's text says homes sell in 61 days, and its February figure is 286. The local agent's August guide shows about 126 days. In a year-end report quoted by a local agent, Brunswick County homes averaged roughly 70 to 85 days on market, and the county recorded 425 sales at $1 million or more in 2025, including several on the island at $4 million to more than $6 million. That is the agent's account of a county report and has not been checked here. The longest island figure is 2.1 times the shortest.

Redfin's per-type figures show the spread. The page says one group of homes sells for about 5% below list price and goes pending in 61 days, another sells for about 1% below list in 26 days, another for about 3% below in 74 days and another about 2% below in 126 days. The page does not label every group in the version fetched, so this brief reports only the range. Realtor.com shows homes selling 5.21% below the asking price in May on average, a ratio of 95%. At the sold median of $1,250,000 a 5% gap is $62,500, an illustration of scale.

For an owner, the useful reading is that the range is wide. A well-priced home can sell in under a month, and the page-wide medians are two to four months. A home priced above what the market will bear can sit for a year, and the February figure of 286 days is a reminder. What the pages cannot say is which a particular home will be.

What does the postal area tell us, and why is it a different market?

The Census reports on postal areas, and the postal area that includes the island is much larger than the island. It has 23,762 residents and 14,619 homes, and the island itself is a small share of it. The Realtor.com page lists the median listing price for this postal area at $535,000, at $258 per listed square foot and a median monthly rent of $2,300. The island's median listing price on the same page is $1,495,000. The ratio is 2.8, which says that a Census figure for the postal area describes a different, mostly mainland market, and a reader should not take it for the island's.

With that caution, the Census figures are these. Of 11,150 occupied homes, 9,724 (87.2%) are owner-occupied and 1,426 (12.8%) are rented. Of the 14,619 homes, 3,469 (23.7%) are vacant. The median household income is $82,692, the median gross rent is $1,352 a month and the median value of owner-occupied homes is $428,600, with a margin of error of $32,682. That value is 34% of the island's sold median of $1,250,000, a ratio this brief computes.

The stock is new. Of 14,619 homes, 4,385 were built in the 2000s and 3,940 in the 2010s, which together are 57% of the stock, and 840 more were built since 2020. Only 1,795 (12.3%) were built before 1980, and the median year built is 2004. That describes a fast-growing coastal area that has been built almost entirely in the last 30 years. The island's own stock is not shown, and the local agent's guide describes older maritime-forest homes beside newer neighborhoods.

A local agent's guide describes the island as having no bridge and no cars, a ferry of about 20 minutes from the mainland, and golf carts, bicycles and walking for getting around. It adds that repairs take more planning and deliveries cost more, because materials move by ferry. These are the guide's descriptions. For a seller they matter because every buyer will ask about them, and because an inspection, a repair or a closing takes longer to arrange when everything arrives by boat.

Source: Census Reporter, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates, tables B25034, B25077, B25003, B25002, B19013 and B25064. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic.

What do club memberships, ferry logistics and rental income mean for a sale?

The local agent's guide says two private clubs anchor island life. It gives the golf and racquet club's full membership at a $75,000 initiation and roughly $2,841 in annual dues, a lifestyle membership at $50,000 and about $2,184, and a house membership at $15,000 and roughly $1,686, with a separate capital contribution for the first two. It adds that whether a membership transfers with a home depends entirely on the property, and that buyers without one may land on a waitlist. These are the guide's figures and they have not been checked against the club.

That affects a seller in a simple way. A home that carries a membership has a feature that a buyer would otherwise pay for and may wait for, and a home that does not carries none. The membership is part of what an owner has to describe, and a seller should know what it is and whether it can be transferred before any conversation about a price, public or private.

The guide also says many homes earn vacation-rental income, that rentals behave differently than mainland beach rentals because the ferry keeps stays longer and more deliberate, and that gross numbers are not net because management, cleaning, maintenance, insurance and ferry logistics come out first. A buyer who counts on rental income will ask for the history. Realtor.com shows no active rental listings for the island in the page fetched, which means its rent figure is for the neighboring postal area and not for the island.

A seller in this market is asked about the ferry, the carts, the membership and the rental history, and each answer is a day or a week of work. A public listing opens a home to those questions from every buyer and visitor. A private sale narrows them to one buyer, who has come knowing the island. Readers comparing markets can also read the North Ridge brief and the West Raleigh brief.

What should an owner ask, and what does a private sale change?

Ask whether a figure is a sale price, an asking price, an average or a model. Ask which month it covers and how many sales sit behind it, since five sales or 72 in a year are small samples. Ask whether a Census or portal figure describes the island or the larger area around it. A seller who has the answers can read a page, and a seller who does not will find that five pages give five prices.

A private sale changes how a home reaches a buyer. With Maison Off-Market there are no showings and no neighbors talking about a sale, the closing date can be flexible so that an owner has time to find a new home, there are no commission costs, there are no closing costs and there are no inspections or repairs. On an island where every showing, inspection and repair is a ferry trip, those points may matter more than in most places. This brief does not claim that a private sale always brings a higher price than a public listing.

Fee arithmetic shows what the commission point means in dollars, without assuming any rate. Each 1% of a sale price is $12,300 at $1,230,000, $12,500 at $1,250,000 and $14,950 at $1,495,000. At 3% those amounts are $36,900, $37,500 and $44,850. At 5% they are $61,500, $62,500 and $74,750. These are illustrations of what a percentage means on the figures in this brief, and they are not a statement of what any agent charges or what any sale would cost.

Privacy is often the first thing owners raise. A public listing puts photographs, a price and every price change in front of anyone, and on a small island the neighbors read it too. A private sale keeps those details out of view. That is a matter of preference and not a claim about price.

Timing is the other thing an owner controls. A public listing starts a clock, and the pages above show 61 to 126 days, with one page showing 286 for a single month. A private sale lets the owner choose the closing date, which matters most to people who need to find the next home first.

If you are weighing a sale of a Bald Head Island home, one conversation costs nothing and obliges you to nothing. We ask about the home, the timing you would like and what you would need from a buyer, and we say plainly whether a private sale fits.

If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a Bald Head Island home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

Prices, days on market, counts and ratios come from Realtor.com's page with indicators as of May 2026, a Movoto page last updated October 4, 2026, a Property Focus page as of August 2026, a local agent's guide dated August 9, 2026 and a Redfin page whose latest figures are for February 2026. The pages cover different periods and boundaries, and most are commercial pages, so they are not independent of each other. Statements about the ferry, clubs and county reports are a local agent's account and have not been checked against the primary sources. A page that lists a neighboring postal area is not evidence about the island.

Census figures come from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates for the postal area that includes Bald Head Island, through Census Reporter. That postal area is much larger than the island and is mostly mainland, so its figures describe a different place. Percentages, gaps, ratios and fee amounts are this brief's own arithmetic and are labeled as such. Where a reading goes beyond what a page says, it is called an inference. No agent names, contact details or street addresses from the pages are reproduced.

Conclusion

The Bald Head Island record shows listing medians of $1,230,000 and $1,495,000, a sold median of $1,250,000, a single-family median of $1,308,500, waits from 61 to 126 days and a market called both buyer's and seller's. The numbers differ because the pages measure different things and months, because the island is small, and because the Census postal area is a mostly mainland place.

It does not fix a price for any one home. The choice between a public listing and a private sale comes down to whether an owner would rather meet showings, inspections and a public clock, or sell quietly on a date that suits them. Maison Off-Market speaks only to sellers, and a conversation costs nothing.