The real Charleston real estate market
The Charleston real estate market has been very strong for the past 5 years as have most places across the country. We did not have wild speculation and crazy price increases, rather a nice steady appreciation due to excellent job growth, a significant retirement population choosing to relocate to the Charleston area and a general relocation trend from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West.
Here are the real numbers concerning sales, inventory and prices for the Charleston real estate market for the past 2 years:
Month-Year Mo. Sales Inventory Avg. Sale Months of Inventory
January-05 1031 4224 $265,392 4.1
February-05 1093 4232 $248,903 3.87
March-05 1739 4211 $247,645 2.42
April-05 1514 4173 $265,423 2.76
May-05 1674 4111 $288,031 2.46
June-05 1854 3988 $278,960 2.15
July-05 1544 4282 $302,060 2.77
August-05 1687 4346 $288,734 2.58
September-05 1519 4505 $295,069 2.97
October-05 1389 4745 $298,002 3.42
November-05 1405 5015 $275,608 3.57
December-05 1573 5167 $273,828 3.28
January-06 1161 5199 $314,923 4.48
February-06 1148 5906 $277,852 5.14
March-06 1602 6271 $299,444 3.91
April-06 1422 6600 $297,008 4.64
May-06 1641 6908 $317,683 4.21
June-06 1697 7302 $288,538 4.3
July-06 1407 7736 $296,436 5.5
August-06 1382 7884 $294,866 5.7
September-06 1396 7997 $275,917 5.73
October-06 1071 8252 $305,805 7.7
November-06
December-06
05 YTD totals 15044 42817
06 YTD totals 13,927 70,055
-7.4% +63.6%
As you can see, sales are off just a little bit on a year to date basis this year (-7.4%) but inventory has soared (+63.6%), and please note the large increase for October 06. Look at the steady climb in inventory from the typical 4000 or so homes to 5000, then 6000, 7000 and now over 8000 available homes on the market.
Prices are pretty steady to up slightly (please note I am using the average sales price for each month). If you would like to know the median price for the Charleston area, it increased 7% to $216,100 on a year over year basis through October.
What's the bottom line?
For sellers, you are facing a lot of competition from preowned homes and new construction and it is important to price it right in order to sell it. There has been very good appreciation no matter how long you have owned your home and it is important to be realistic in pricing in line with appreciation. For example, if you paid $200,000 last year, your house is not worth $250,000, housing did not appreciate at 25% in the past year and listing at that price will languish, ultimately result in price reductions and if/when an offer comes, it likely will be significantly lower than your overly optimistic expectation. If on the other hand, you paid that same $200,000 2, 3 or 4 years ago, you can expect a very nice profit when you decide to put your home on the market.
For buyers, there is a nice selection of available homes on the market to choose from and the very best thing is that you do not have to rush into a decision as you might have had to in years past. I remember typically telling buyers as we stood on the porch after touring a house they liked very much that if they really liked the house and they didn't put an offer on it right away, please don't expect that it will still be available when you ultimately decide you want it. (Of course, anytime you find a house that you really like and don't want to risk potentially losing it, that is still good advice, it is simply not as competitive a market as it previously was.)