Caleb Courtney - Realtor/Broker - Keller Williams Innovate

Caleb Courtney - Realtor/Broker - Keller Williams Innovate Located in Wilmington, NC. but motivated to bring the highest quality service to buy, sell or invest

09/18/2026

Part 2 of the healthcare truth, and this is the hopeful half. Two things on the horizon. First, Novant just opened Scotts Hill Medical Center: 66 inpatient beds, an ICU, and eight operating rooms on the north side of town. Second, and this is the big one, UNC Health has filed to build a 150-bed, seven-story hospital at the corner of 17th and Shipyard, less than a mile from Novant's main campus, targeting 2030. It's pending state approval and it's not a done deal. Update since I filmed: it's now a three-way fight. The state says New Hanover County needs 225 new hospital beds, and UNC (150 beds), Atrium (42 beds in Porters Neck), and Novant (all 225 in a new heart and vascular tower) are all competing for them. Public input actually counts in that decision. Whatever happens, this region has had one option for a long time, and competition would be very good for all of us. My practical advice if you're over 65: drive from the house you're considering to the nearest ER. Time it. Then ask yourself if you're comfortable. That drive matters more than the granite countertops. Search "Moving to Wilmington NC? 5 Truths Your Realtor Won't Tell You" on YouTube.

09/17/2026

Starting my top 5 sunset spots in Wilmington with the one I can see from my own neighborhood. Riverlights is a 3,000+ home master-planned community on the Cape Fear River, central west side of town near Monkey Junction, and it's where my wife and I built our home. Inside it is Marina Village, a little mixed-use district with a boardwalk and dock that walks right out to the river. This is the easiest sunset on the list to make a whole evening out of. Coffee at The Getaway Café, pizza at Girls with Dough, a golf simulator bar, and Smoke on the Water sitting right on the water for dinner. There's also Ember Park next to it, where they run farmers markets and community events. My move: dinner at Smoke on the Water, then walk the boardwalk as the sun drops over the Cape Fear. If you catch a Tuesday or Thursday, there's usually live music from 6 to 8, which lines up almost perfectly with sunset this time of year. Search "5 Best Sunset Spots in Wilmington, NC" on YouTube for the full countdown.

09/16/2026

Truth #5 is the one I'd want to know before anything else if I were retiring here. Wilmington skews older, and healthcare is one of the biggest lifestyle factors people underweight when they move. Here's the situation. New Hanover County owned the hospital for nearly 53 years, then sold it to Novant Health in 2021 for $1.5 billion (about what it would cost to build us a new bridge, for what it's worth). That sale created the New Hanover Community Endowment, now over $1.25 billion invested back into the community. It also made Novant the region's largest employer, holding roughly 96% of the healthcare market share in Wilmington. So for most people, Novant is your only option. And in 2022, a 77-year-old patient died in the ER after waiting more than 5 hours for care. Federal regulators investigated, placed the hospital in immediate jeopardy status, and threatened its Medicare contract before restoring it after a reinspection. That's not my opinion. That's the public record, reported by every local outlet. Part 2 covers what's changing, including a second hospital system that could finally give this area competition. Search "Moving to Wilmington NC? 5 Truths Your Realtor Won't Tell You" on YouTube.

09/15/2026

My #3 sunrise spot in Wilmington is the easy one, and that's the whole point. Johnnie Mercer's Pier at Wrightsville Beach is the big iconic concrete pier that stretches the furthest out into the ocean. It sits toward the north end of the island, has tons of parking, a brand new facilities building, and near-zero-entry access where the concrete leads right down to the sand. So if you have elderly parents, little kids, or any accessibility concerns, this is your spot. Park, take a few steps, watch the sun come up. Bonus if you fish, because people pull mackerel off this pier all the time (I don't know if they bite in the morning, I just know they get caught). Search "5 Best Sunrise Spots in Wilmington, NC" on YouTube for the full countdown.

09/11/2026

Confession time. My #4 sunrise pick in Wilmington is one I haven’t personally stood on yet, but I had to include it. It’s the Coquina Rocks near Fort Fisher, at the south end of Kure Beach. This spot kept surfacing in my research, people posting photos on Reddit and Facebook, and once I looked into it I couldn’t leave it off the list. Here’s what makes it special: it’s the only naturally occurring rock outcrop on the entire North Carolina coast. Our coastline is famously flat and sandy with no rocky crags anywhere, which makes this formation genuinely one of a kind. It’s coquina, a limestone made of shells and coral cemented together over somewhere between 12,000 and 80,000 years, and it’s covered in this bright green moss that makes it stunning at sunrise. The catch: it’s only fully exposed at the lowest tide, so you have to check the tide tables and time it right or you’ll miss it entirely. I’m heading there myself soon, and I sent my editor Colton down to film it in the meantime, because you deserve to actually see the spot I’m recommending. Search “5 Best Sunrise Spots in Wilmington, NC” on YouTube for the full countdown.

VisitWilmington

Congratulations to my two newest buyers Hannah and Dian closing on their first home today 😭👏🏻 I'm so proud of these two ...
09/09/2026

Congratulations to my two newest buyers Hannah and Dian closing on their first home today 😭👏🏻 I'm so proud of these two I can't wait to see what y'all do with the place!!! Thank you for trusting me to help can you find and secure your first home 🏠🔑

09/08/2026

Sunrise ranking incoming. My #5 pick isn’t on any beach you can drive to. It’s Masonboro Island, an 8-mile undeveloped nature preserve you can only reach by boat or kayak. Which is exactly the point. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you get a sunrise with zero people, zero development, and the feeling that you’ve stepped back in time. My grandfather used to say God pulls back the blanket of the day and wakes up all the critters. Masonboro is where you feel that most. Search “5 Best Sunrise Spots in Wilmington, NC” on YouTube for the full countdown.

VisitWilmington

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1001 Military Cutoff Road Suite 101
Wilmington, NC
28405

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