Charleston market report, December 2007, revised
January 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We’ll present the data first, a brief comment later.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of the data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Unit Sales and Inventory
Single Family Homes
| Month | Sales 06 | Sales 07 | Change | Inv 06 | Mo 06 | Inv 07 | Mo 07 | Change |
| Jan | 785 | 706 | -10.06% | 3719 | 4.75 | 5719 | 8.14 | 53.78% |
| Feb | 858 | 777 | -9.44% | 4023 | 4.69 | 5861 | 7.61 | 45.69% |
| Mar | 1178 | 1014 | -13.92% | 4330 | 3.68 | 6087 | 6.12 | 40.58% |
| Apr | 964 | 791 | -17.95% | 4692 | 4.87 | 6329 | 8.21 | 34.89% |
| May | 1189 | 959 | -19.34% | 4900 | 4.12 | 6711 | 8.54 | 36.96% |
| June | 1322 | 1027 | -22.31% | 5235 | 3.96 | 6932 | 7.89 | 32.42% |
| July | 1029 | 859 | -16.52% | 5618 | 5.49 | 7022 | 8.87 | 24.99% |
| Aug | 1043 | 911 | -12.66% | 5849 | 5.62 | 7107 | 8.76 | 21.51% |
| Sep | 1102 | 718 | -34.85% | 5963 | 5.42 | 7159 | 10.81 | 20.06% |
| Oct | 838 | 637 | -23.99% | 6075 | 7.28 | 7102 | 12.66 | 16.91% |
| Nov | 890 | 673 | -24.38% | 5999 | 6.75 | 7044 | 12.27 | 17.42% |
| Dec | 866 | 593 | -31.52% | 5755 | 6.68 | 6862 | 12.28 | 19.24% |
| Year | 12064 | 9665 | -19.89% |
Condos and Townhomes
| Month | Sales 06 | Sales 07 | Change | Inv 06 | Mo 06 | Inv 07 | Mo 07 | Change |
| Jan | 331 | 157 | -52.57% | 1189 | 3.60 | 2403 | 15.50 | 102.10% |
| Feb | 276 | 167 | -39.49% | 1665 | 6.03 | 2521 | 15.47 | 51.41% |
| Mar | 375 | 250 | -33.33% | 1763 | 4.71 | 2618 | 10.95 | 48.50% |
| Apr | 435 | 250 | -42.53% | 1730 | 3.99 | 2740 | 11.66 | 58.38% |
| May | 404 | 319 | -21.04% | 1971 | 4.87 | 2805 | 11.54 | 42.31% |
| June | 329 | 307 | -6.69% | 2096 | 6.37 | 2793 | 12.75 | 33.25% |
| July | 345 | 274 | -20.58% | 2289 | 6.63 | 2811 | 11.20 | 22.80% |
| Aug | 313 | 222 | -29.07% | 2318 | 7.43 | 2873 | 15.12 | 23.94% |
| Sep | 284 | 215 | -24.30% | 2419 | 8.52 | 2941 | 15.24 | 21.58% |
| Oct | 268 | 227 | -15.30% | 2624 | 9.79 | 2921 | 14.90 | 11.32% |
| Nov | 209 | 186 | -11.00% | 2579 | 12.40 | 2923 | 17.30 | 13.34% |
| Dec | 245 | 137 | -44.08% | 2467 | 10.10 | 2828 | 23.37 | 14.63% |
| Year | 3814 | 2711 | -28.92% |
The “Current Inventory” (inv) reflects the number of active listings on the market on the 16th day of each Month. The “Months of Inventory” (mo) is equal to the current inventory divided by the monthly sales. This reflects how many months it would take to sell out of inventory at the current month’s rate of sale. It can also be referred to as the absorption rate.
12 month comparisons
| Single Family Homes | ||||
| Date | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 12 months 1/1/2006-12/31/2006 | 12,064 | $314,750 | $214,000 | 68 |
| 12 months 1/1/2007-12/31/2007 | 9,665 | $315,616 | $217,000 | 93 |
| Change | -19.89% | 0.28% | 1.40% | 36.76% |
| Condos and Townhomes | ||||
| Date | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 12 months 1/1/2006-12/31/2006 | 3,814 | $241,370 | $183,000 | 66 |
| 12 months 1/1/2007-12/31/2007 | 2,711 | $257,126 | $184,900 | 106 |
| Change | -28.92% | 6.53% | 1.04% | 60.61% |
For 2007, unit sales declined sharply and inventory increased substantially early in the year before stabilizing at higher levels than previous years. Prices have remained very stable. Future Charleston South Carolina real estate market reports will break data down even further by price range and should prove to be even more helpful for anyone looking to buy or sell Charleston real estate.
Do you have a mortgage preapproval letter
January 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I get a lot of inquiries from potential buyers of Charleston South Carolina real estate and I’m glad to provide whatever information I can. Every listing that appears on the Charleston MLS when someone searches my website is not mine but I can still be of help, either to provide further information or to help a buyer with the purchase of a property.
On occasion, someone asks me to show them a property and I’m glad to do so (after all, that is my job, to show and help someone buy a home). Whether they are phoning or emailing, I always have 2 questions, are you working with another agent (because if they are and have a signed buyer agreement, then I can’t show them any property unless it’s my listing) and the all important second question, do you have a mortgage preapproval letter.
Why is mortgage preapproval so important. First of all, if you don’t have one, your offer will not be considered by most sellers in the Charleston real estate market. Of equal importance is that I want to know that you can actually buy a home if you find something you like.
I hope that most real estate buyers spend some time finding a good real estate agent to represent them. The only way that I can find out if a real estate buyer is serious and qualified to buy a house is to ask for a mortgage preapproval letter.
A lot of agents aren’t so busy right now because housing sales have slowed and they might not insist that you have a mortgage preapproval letter before jumping in their car and spending their time and money to show you a home or homes.
I’m not saying I’m better than those agents who don’t require mortgage preapproval letters, I’m just saying that if you want to get in the car with me and see properties, I’m going to ask for one.
Let me close with a little story. I met a very nice couple who were interested in purchasing in the million dollar plus range. Now you might think that I’d waive my policy of qualifying the buyer just for the chance to make a million dollar plus sale. Actually, it is more important at that price point than for a more typical range. The sellers of luxury real estate want to know that people viewing their homes are qualified buyers and not “looky lou’s” or even worse, potential thieves.
I explained what I required, but the buyers were going to be paying cash so mortgage preapproval wasn’t possible. I suggested that they provide some financial documentation and a letter from their bank indicating their ability to buy in that price range. I met them to begin the house hunt and they provided about 4 inches of financials indicating a net worth of 10+ million so we started looking at homes.
Buyer tip: get a mortgage preapproval letter. Please understand that you are under no obligation to buy a home.
South Carolina ranks 39th in foreclosures
January 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There is no good news regarding foreclosures, one is too many and millions of homeowners may be foreclosed upon. The only bright news I’ve seen recently is that it is nowhere near a big a problem in South Carolina as it is in other states and the total number of foreclosures in the United States is only 1% of all properties.
According to the latest information from RealtyTrac, the largest publisher of foreclosure data, South Carolina ranks 39th among the states.
Click here for data for all 50 states.
Here is the latest information for South Carolina and the United States:
South Carolina
- Total foreclosure filings 5038
- Change from 2006 -27.56%
- Change from 2005 -33.76%
- Total Properties with filings 4247
- % Households (foreclosure rate) 0.220%
Please note: The total foreclosure filings would be higher than the number of properties with filings because a first and a second mortgage would count as 2 foreclosure filings.
United States
- Total foreclosure filings 2,203,295
- Change from 2006 +74.99%
- Change from 2005 +148.83%
- Total Properties with filings 1,285,873
- % Households (foreclosure rate) 1.033%
Most interesting are these points. South Carolina foreclosure rates have not increased from either 2005 or 2006 but even more surprisingly, have actually declined. While one foreclosure is bad and 2+ million is worse, only 1% of households in the United States are in foreclosure activity which means 99% of all households are not in foreclosure.
The 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates include states that led the housing boom and the economically troubled Midwest. Nevada, Florida, Michigan, California, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois and Indiana have the highest rates of foreclosure.
Pricing your home for sale
January 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
To determine pricing your home for sale, real estate agents have always relied on comparable homes sold recently in the market.
In the grand old days of Charleston South Carolina real estate, when homes sold in minutes rather than months, if the seller wanted to sell quickly, pricing would be at the lower end of the recommended range, if time really didn’t matter, the high end of the range would suffice and the home would still sell quickly.
If the sold comps indicated homes selling for $150 per square foot, you would multiply that times the square footage, add another 5% for market conditions heavily favoring sellers during that time and round up to the nearest logical price.
Flash forward to today. There are thousands of homes on the market competing for hundreds of buyers. Prices in the Charleston area have been surprisingly stable during the past year despite soaring inventory.
But thousands of homes go unsold every month. If you are thinking of selling your home in the Charleston area, do you want to sell or just have a for sale sign collecting cobwebs in your yard 6 months from now.
But the prices of sold homes doesn’t really tell the complete story today as much as the prices of other active listings that your home will compete with.
You see, even if the comps based on previously sold homes indicate that your house should sell for $150 per square foot but there are a half dozen homes in your area that are selling from $145 to $148 per square foot, you have to price your home competitively with those houses and slightly lower would be even better.
A National MLS?
January 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Why are so many companies spending so much money to try and develop a National MLS. Think Zillow or Trulia who are both advertising driven, the new bird in the nest, Roost, whose business plan relies on selling listings back to the broker sponsoring the area, Point 2, a website software provider (who I have happily used for my original website for over 5 years) with the ambition but no chance for success at this idea (more at another time) and additional others who may or may not succeed at staying in business. Then there’s the old Realtor.com owned by the National Association of Realtors and operated for profit by Move, Inc.
I don’t get it. Zillow and Trulia suffer from not having all of the listings for any market that real estate consumers are searching. While they both have lots of neat web2.0 features, don’t you really want to see every available property.
Roost is taking a different approach; in exchange for getting the idx feed for a market from a broker, they will indeed have all the listings and will sell the clicks (leads) back to the sponsoring broker. They’re opening in 14 real estate markets and hope to be in 40+ within a year.
Clunky old Realtor.com does have all the listings (except fsbo’s) but despite attempted improvements at being a user friendly site, it is still stuck in 1990’s technology. Never the less, it still has the largest percentage of online real estate search traffic.
So what gives, despite the slowing real estate market nationally, venture capitalists and other investors are spending serious money fund websites that may or may not make money but certainly don’t answer the number one need of the real estate consumer: finding all available homes for sale.
Now let’s talk about searching the Charleston MLS on a website like this using the MLS Gateway. It may not be as “pretty” or have all the nifty features of other sites but listings are updated immediately as they are entered into the MLS. If you want to see homes by price, area or narrow your search in other ways, you can. Save your favorites or request additional information. And you can view every home for sale in the Charleston real estate market listed on the MLS.
As to a National MLS, I just don’t see it happening anytime soon. What do you say?
Understanding the Realtor thing
January 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Teresa Boardman at
She talks about unrepresented buyers, dual agency, loyalty, multiple agents and viewing homes, broker reciprocity, the importance of mortgage pre approval, how agents are paid and other subjects many real estate consumers don’t always understand.
Please read this helpful article.
Martin Luther King Day
January 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The inspirational “I have a dream” speech in honor of Martin Luther King Day, 17+ minutes but well worth your time.
Charleston gardens bloom all year
January 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
As you read this blog, you’ll see pictures of our garden as well as pictures of gardens from around the Charleston area. These are photos of our geraniums, they’re almost 4 years old and when it gets cold at night like it will this evening, we’ll cover them and hope for the best but we’ve been very fortunate thus far. One of the most wonderful things about living in Charleston is our mild winters which allow our gardens to bloom all year.
Congress in action
January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Should you vote? Take a look at a current elected official in action discussing the economy with Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, not to be confused with Henry (Hank) Paulson, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs and current Secretary of the Treasury.
Don’t be a lead, be a client
January 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When real estate consumers use the Internet to search for homes, a number of websites require registration in order to search the MLS. With so many sites available to search for Charleston South Carolina real estate, a lot of people might just go on to the next site where they might gain access without providing their name, email or phone number or on really restricted sites, be required to provide even more detailed and private information.
I understand this because I Google everything when I’m looking for information and when I find friendly sites, I stay, unfriendly, and I’m on to the next. By a friendly site, I mean one that provides a significant amount of information without requiring anything of me other than to click around and find lots of helpful content. I consider a site unfriendly if they require immediate registration to learn anything without a hint of what I might find.
There is a difference between sites that exist to help you with your future real estate transactions and those that simply exist to obtain your information and resell it as a lead. In the real estate industry, these are called lead generator companies.
I talked about this idea in the blog on my original website almost a year ago and it is just as relevant a subject today. My friend, Larry Cragun of Real Estate Undressed, realtor, mortgage broker and blogger extraordinaire wrote about lead generators then and why to watch out when you search, written with Larry’s great sense of humor.
Please read, Lead, Lead, Lead, Lead.
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