Near the peak of the recent real estate boom along coastal North Carolina's rivers and sounds, William Highfill got an invitation for a gala three-day sales weekend at a new Brunswick County subdivision. It was spring 2006 when Highfill, a retired federal government worker from Roanoke, Va., joined a group of enthusiastic buyers from as far away as California. Between chair massages, catered meals and rides in two chartered helicopters, they looked around the pine-covered property, which had been a golf course. Highfill and his son-in-law, Mason Cass, bought three lots, solely for investment. The entire 200-lot first phase of the project sold out in two days. At the time, that weekend wasn't unusual for the scorching-hot real estate market along the more than 3,000 miles of North Carolina's "inner coast." But today, the nation's housing bust is in full view in Brunswick County: Many of the sought-after lots are sprouting weeds instead of houses. Brunswick, the epicenter of the boom, shows little evidence that the dizzying sales will return soon; with prices down, recent home sales show a modest recovery. Single-lot sales, though, have fallen to less than a fifth of their peak in late 2005. And foreclosure notices this year are running about 50 percent higher than those in the rest of the state. A News & Observer survey in mid-2006 found more than 34,000 new homes in developers' plans, half of them in Brunswick County. There was ex ...
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