Charleston real estate market report, April 2008 home prices
June 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It appears the law of supply and demand hasn’t quite reached the Charleston real estate market as yet because with fewer sales and increasing inventory, you would think that prices might have declined a little more. And while anecdotal evidence does confirm pricing pressure, the statistics haven’t quite caught up as yet.
I use a running 12 month average for the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months on the chart below. But for those of you who really want to see some price declines, the median home price in the Charleston real estate market declined from $210,000 in April 2007 to $199,900 in April 2008. The median price however is just the middle price of all recorded home sales and since there have been more sales of lower priced homes than higher priced properties, the median has declined while actual prices seem to have held up a little better.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
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Charleston home sales and inventory
June 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
An interesting chart showing sales and inventory for the Charleston real estate market from January 2007 through April 2008.
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List (asking) price vs sales price May 2008
May 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment
With almost 12,000 homes currently available for sale in the Charleston real estate market which is almost a 16 month inventory if no additional homes come on the market.
If you really want to sell your home, you must price it to sell.
As you can see, the asking price is significantly higher than the prices paid by buyers in all classifications with the only exception being luxury condos and townhomes.
The current sales price to list price according to Charleston MLS statistics shows that homes are selling at a 5.23% discount to list.
That is the highest rate I’ve seen yet asking prices are even higher per the chart above. Something has to give and my best guess is that it won’t be the buyer.
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Charleston home prices
May 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Median and average home prices in the Charleston real estate market over the past 12 months. Despite declining unit sales, high levels of inventory, prices have remained fairly stable.
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Charleston South Carolina market report, March 2008
April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The Charleston real estate market seems to defy gravity when it comes to home prices. While the median price declined by about 5% from March 2007 to March 2008 for all sales in the Charleston area, when you analyze the most recent 12 month period and compare it to the previous 12 month period and when you break the housing market into classifications by price and type of property, the picture is not as gloomy as the media might make you think.
Don’t misunderstand for a moment that the Charleston South Carolina real estate market is soaring and doesn’t have a problem in the world because obviously, that just isn’t the case. Inventory started to increase over a year ago and sales started to decline at about the same time. While inventory has stabilized with the possible exception of Charleston luxury real estate, unit sales continue to decline from previously lower levels.
It’s probably a combination of fear of buying because of the doom and gloom reported by the media, a fear of paying too much because you think your home might be worth less tomorrow and certainly, the unavailability of previously available mortgage products to those who can no longer qualify for a loan.
Anecdotal evidence seems to point to sellers finally understanding that their home is no longer worth what it might have been at the peak of the market in 2005. Some have decided to take their home off the market and stay put, others are renting their home rather than sell for less than they think it might be worth. There are some foreclosures available at good prices, although the condition is generally poor at best. There are some homeowners in trouble and there are a bunch of “short sales” in the MLS, unfortunately, the sale can’t be negotiated without the approval of the lender or lenders and they have been generally unresponsive. And there are some motivated sellers who simply have to sell and good deals are available.
The most important thing is to analyze and understand the real value of the property and make an offer that will not be spurned as insulting yet not pay the asking price. If the property is well priced, while you shouldn’t have to pay list price, you are not going to be able to get it at a big discount. Actually, if a property is very overpriced, you more than likely won’t bother to view it.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Single family homes
| Under 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 4/1/2006-3/31/2007 | 10,651 | $231,543 | $205,798 | 57 |
| 4/1/2007-3/31/2008 | 8,069 | $230,954 | $205,000 | 77 |
| Change | -24.24% | -0.25% | -0.39% | 35.09% |
| Over 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 4/1/2006-3/31/2007 | 1,092 | $1,112,033 | $869,500 | 106 |
| 4/1/2007-3/31/2008 | 778 | $1,156,888 | $850,000 | 149 |
| Change | -28.75% | 4.03% | -2.24% | 40.57% |
Condos and townhomes
| Under 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 4/1/2006-3/31/2007 | 3,223 | $191,337 | $174,900 | 49 |
| 4/1/2007-3/31/2008 | 2,386 | $211,198 | $180,000 | 88 |
| Change | -25.97% | 10.38% | 2.92% | 79.59% |
| Over 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 4/1/2006-3/31/2007 | 186 | $967,539 | $801,775 | 94 |
| 4/1/2007-3/31/2008 | 186 | $967,683 | $872,500 | 102 |
| Change | 0.00% | 0.01% | 8.82% | 8.51% |
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Charleston median sale prices
April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Median sales prices for the past 12 months in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market. The trend is slightly but not dramatically down such as we are seeing in many real estate markets around the country.
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Charleston home prices
April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’ve been reporting on Charleston real estate prices on my other blog for the past 18 months and here for the past few months. When you review the Charleston real estate statistics, despite rising inventory and declining unit sales, prices still held steady.
I think the law of supply and demand has finally taken hold and prices seem to be down somewhat. I’ll be gathering all the data in a few days to present the monthly market report but anecdotal data from looking at the price history of homes that might be interesting to various clients seems to be pointing in that direction – prices are coming down.
Now I’m not sure yet whether several of these listings that I noticed were totally overpriced when they were first listed and have finally taken serious price reductions or whether the homeowner totally overpaid when they bought the property, especially if they bought during the peak of late 2005 and early 2006. But I’ve seen some really attractive Charleston home prices in the past few days. It will be interesting when I compute the statistics, stay tuned for more.
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March 2008 foreclosure data
April 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The Charleston real estate market has far fewer foreclosures than many well publicized markets around the country and of course, one is too many. The Post and Courier had several pages of foreclosures listed as always on Tuesday. RealtyTrac just published the national numbers.
South Carolina is ranked 35th in the country in total foreclosures, up from 37th in February. There were a total of 932 filings, up from 698 in February. One home went into foreclosure for every 2120 households, up from one in 2762.
Nevada, California and Florida have the highest foreclosure rates while California, Florida and Ohio have the highest number of foreclosures.
Click here for all March 2008 foreclosure data courtesy of RealtyTrac.
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Charleston home prices, Feb 08
April 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Charleston home prices have remained consistently stable on both an average and median basis in all housing classifications despite high inventory levels and declining unit sales.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
| Single Family Homes | ||||
| Under 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 3/1/2006-2/28/2007 | 10,786 | $230,705 | $205,000 | 67 |
| 3/1/2007-2/29/2008 | 8,428 | $232,348 | $205,528 | 89 |
| Change | -21.86% | 0.71% | 0.26% | 32.84% |
| Over 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 3/1/2006-2/28/2007 | 1,118 | $1,120,863 | $872,288 | 111 |
| 3/1/2007-2/29/2008 | 828 | $1,143,116 | $850,000 | 156 |
| Change | -25.94% | 1.99% | -2.56% | 40.54% |
| Condos and Townhomes | ||||
| Under 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 3/1/2006-2/28/2007 | 3,341 | $193,795 | $178,000 | 69 |
| 3/1/2007-2/29/2008 | 2,459 | $208,808 | $179,900 | 108 |
| Change | -26.40% | 7.75% | 1.07% | 56.52% |
| Over 600k | ||||
| Dates | Sales | Avg Sale | Median Sale | DOM |
| 3/1/2006-2/28/2007 | 191 | $935,525 | $799,100 | 118 |
| 3/1/2007-2/29/2008 | 191 | $909,597 | $870,000 | 138 |
| Change | 0.00% | -2.77% | 8.87% | 16.95% |
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Charleston real estate inventory and absorption rate Feb 08
April 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Inventory in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market remains elevated but down slightly from the peak reached last summer. The Charleston luxury real estate market has so much inventory that the absorption rate could be better measured in years vs. months.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Inventory and absorption rate, single family homes
| Month | Inv 06 | Mo 06 | Inv 07 | Mo 07 | Inv 08 | Mo 08 | 07 to 06 | 08 to 07 |
| under 600k | ||||||||
| Jan | 2934 | 4.21 | 4643 | 7.24 | 4743 | 10.85 | 58.25% | 2.15% |
| Feb | 3158 | 4.01 | 4789 | 6.59 | 4891 | 10.47 | 51.65% | 2.13% |
| Mar | 3374 | 3.20 | 5026 | 5.47 | 48.96% | |||
| Apr | 3648 | 4.23 | 5248 | 7.35 | 43.86% | |||
| May | 3751 | 3.55 | 5419 | 6.24 | 44.47% | |||
| June | 4001 | 3.34 | 5547 | 6.02 | 38.64% | |||
| July | 4308 | 4.64 | 5516 | 7.17 | 28.04% | |||
| Aug | 4524 | 4.85 | 5598 | 6.91 | 23.74% | |||
| Sep | 4670 | 4.61 | 5516 | 8.28 | 18.12% | |||
| Oct | 4808 | 6.45 | 5376 | 9.08 | 11.81% | |||
| Nov | 4762 | 5.79 | 5236 | 8.38 | 9.95% | |||
| Dec | 4605 | 5.74 | 4985 | 9.13 | 8.25% | |||
| over 600k | ||||||||
| Jan | 806 | 9.16 | 1410 | 21.69 | 1781 | 37.89 | 74.94% | 26.31% |
| Feb | 889 | 12.70 | 1537 | 30.74 | 1882 | 47.05 | 72.89% | 22.45% |
| Mar | 983 | 8.06 | 1653 | 17.22 | 68.16% | |||
| Apr | 1070 | 10.49 | 1750 | 22.73 | 63.55% | |||
| May | 1186 | 8.98 | 1849 | 20.32 | 55.90% | |||
| June | 1275 | 10.28 | 1861 | 17.72 | 45.96% | |||
| July | 1368 | 13.68 | 1862 | 24.50 | 36.11% | |||
| Aug | 1419 | 12.78 | 1832 | 18.14 | 29.11% | |||
| Sep | 1416 | 16.09 | 1825 | 35.10 |