According to RealtyTrac, there are presently around 3784 foreclosures in the Charleston area.  These are properties that are scheduled for auction, have a pre-foreclosure filing or are bank-owned. 

Generally, the average home in Charleston has declined by 5% in the past year.  The average home over $500k has declined by 10% (since April 2009).  Predictions are that home prices will fall approximately another 5% before we hit a firm bottom. 

There were approximately 700 closings in April 2010 (unofficial) in our market.  That's a 21% increase over 2009, almost all of which is attributed to the tax credit.  As a better barometer of the market, there were 79 closings over $450,000 (t...

While it may not always seem as such in my emails/updates, I am typically an optimist when it comes to Real Estate.  And, long term, I have no doubt that real estate from today forward is a wise and wonderful investment.  The issue that I face is that most of my sellers didn't buy in "today's" market, therefore the questions becomes, "Is it worth while to hold onto a property that is upside down, depreciating or otherwise no longer desired?'  For some people the answer is yes, but as needs change both personally and financially, the time to sell becomes "now" for many. 

Thus, in looking at the next three years, I always maintain a very strong sense of caution in my advisement (o...

The market continues to show signs of stronger activity.  While actual closings and actual listings (the real indicators) are still very weak (listings are still climbing back near historic highs) (sales closed are still at near historic lows).  There also seems to be a growing consensus that we are poised for a double dip housing market.  Bringing this closer to home, Forbes and others have ranked Charleston one of the top 5 stronger markets in the South or Nation (depending on the report).  In the event of a double-dip national market, this would point to the fact that Charleston will remain flat.  In the event of continued National Improvement, we should be able to find solve...

The official February tally is in, and it showed that we (the market) sold 521 homes in the Charleston MLS.  That's 20% more than this time last year and about the same percentage increase over January.  The sales number is growing, showing more than 575 homes sold in the past 30 days as of 3/14/2010.  We now have 2003 pending sales in the MLS, a number near the 3 year high of 2200 set last Summer.

What does this mean for you?  Homes are selling; it's all about price.  Traffic is substantially higher.  While your property hasn't sold yet, we are seeing a large number of cash buyers, investors and first time home buyers making up the bulk of our market.  The median sales price is u...

Presently there are 9635 listings for sale in the MLS.  There are 1856 pendings.  There were an estimated 454 closings in February, which represents a 10% increase over January and a huge decline from last October/November.

Overall sales pace this year is down 6.34% - this in it of itself is a very discouraging number.  However, we are finding positive balance in the fact that the inventory seems to have peaked at 10% below where it was this time last year (total properties listed).  This is a good sign. 

Average days on market is 133 and climbing slowing.

While Median sales price is up 5% in the past four months, I believe that is mostly driven by lower interest rates, not by ...

As a whole, we are seeing consistently more activity in the market.  The Pending Sales Index for Charleston, a leading indicator of closing data, is up to 1878 units (nearly 430 higher than on January 1).  Web traffic and volume is much higher now than in January or December. 

The inventory has climbed from just under 9000 units for sale on January 1 to 9577 as of today, which shows that the major source of our problem (excessive and distressed inventory) has not peaked.  In other words, we are not at the bottom yet in relation to prices.

Where we have hit bottom is in overall distress.  It's not so much the "skeleton in the closet" that we're dealing with now, it's just the shee...

By now we have all heard about the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit for up to $8,000 as well as the new Credit for Existing Home Owners of up to $6,500.  These government-issued credits are creating a situation that could hurt us in the second half of the year if we are not prepared.
 
The allure of getting $8,000 to purchase a home has attracted many buyers that normally would have waited to purchase. This is great in the short term but at the same time it creates a vacuum in the third and fourth quarters of 2010. The home buyer credit is sucking July through December buyers into buying now before the deadline. Because of this, there will be a lull in business after the credit ends. At ab...