Charleston, SC Real Estate Market Update July 26, 2010

Aug 14th 2010

Posted By: Brian Beatty @ 9:30am In: Market Update

As of today, there are 9941 homes on the market in our Tri-County.

There are 1858 homes pending/contingent in the MLS which indicates we have bottomed (it popped up some last week and a little more this week) in this recent downturn. However, out our current pace of new contracts, I still expect prices to fall.

We have closed 307 homes as of the 20th of this month; that represents a closed sales decline of 52.74%. Ouch!

So, listing inventory is not rising or falling, sales are not growing or falling (as of the last two weeks), closed sales are down substantially. What this mean? We are neither gaining or losing traction (from a statistical perspective) in Charleston; we are at equilibrium. This either represents a tipping point or a turning point. If jobs improve so will real estate. We have 5,000 foreclosures and short-sales to burn off before we can turn the corner, and the data indicates we need 18 more months of anemic marketing conditions (basically flat line prices or even a very slight dip) to clear that out.

And, with the recent and noticeable drop in market traffic, we should consider a minor price reduction this week. Things are going to get easier or improve any as the Summer ends. And, next year appears to be building as a repeat for this year.

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