Charleston, SC Real Estate Market Update August 16, 2010

Aug 16th 2010

Posted By: Brian Beatty @ 10:13am In: Market Update

Monday Market Update:

Inventory is taking a slight dip, which is always a good thing. There are 9870 homes for sale in the Tri-County, down about 1% over the last 2 weeks. This is also typical at the end of the Summer. Pendings were stable week over week at 1783. Sales are pacing slightly ahead of July, but not much. The foregoing, would indicate to me that the worst of the "post tax-credit hangover" is behind us and now we are on a sustainable market path. This, however, doesn't mean that there still is significant downward pressure on prices. As a matter of fact, most of the homes closing now, are retreating from June numbers as we see more investors, more cash buyers and less first-time homebuyers (the latter, who usually pay more). I'm a firm believer that we have about another 5-10% to go before we truly bottom in pricing, followed in 2011 by one more year of stagnant values driven mostly by a large swath of foreclosures. Dorchester County was the number one county in the state in June for Foreclosures, followed by Horry County in Myrtle Beach.

Our stance? We need two showings per week at our current price or should consider a 1-3% price reduction. Activity is moderate right now and there is some indication we could see a slight 30 day pickup in September followed by a low-period in the Fall and Winter, marked by a stabilization next year and a small recovery in 2012. It all depends on jobs, which aren't growing right now.

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