Denial is a river in Egypt
I wonder whether the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has any credibility with the public any more. First we had the Laughable Lereah with his misguided pronouncements and now newly promoted Larry (the Yuckster) Yun seems to be in denial regarding the current conditions in the housing market.
Each month, the NAR reduces the sales forecast and each month brings another pronouncement that the end of the housing correction is near. A year ago, they trotted out a multi million dollar ad campaign, it's a great time to buy or sell a house, then they modified it to good and I thought they might get to pretty good but instead they've turned Pollyanna with some kind of boy in a swing feel good ad. The public is just not buying what they are saying and I can't blame them since their credibility is suspect.
Here are the current conditions in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market and my best guess for the upcoming year. Inventory remains elevated but has stayed stable for much of the past year. Unit sales have declined sharply because fewer borrowers are able to obtain financing. Both trends should continue for most if not all of 2008 and I don't see a turnaround until 2009 at the earliest.
As to pricing, I'm personally surprised we haven't experienced any meaningful decline since supply and demand affect price. Of course there are good buys to be found in the market whether it is a very motivated seller who has a job transfer or a seller who can no longer afford their mortgage payment but overall, whether you are looking at average or median sales, prices remain very stable in the Charleston area.
People are still buying and selling homes every day. Buyers know it is a buyers market while some sellers are still holding onto hope that their properties are worth what their neighbor got a year or two ago at the peak of the market. (I wonder why buyers pay attention to media reports while sellers just don't seem to notice).
Real estate is local, it always has been, it always will be. Think about the old saying "location, location, location". Areas with both excellent job growth and population growth including the Charleston area will enjoy much better real estate market conditions.
I publish statistics on sales, inventory and pricing every month, raw data plus my perspective on what has transpired in the Charleston real estate market and my assessment of future trends. Denial is a river in Egypt. In Charleston, the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet in Charleston Harbor and form the Atlantic Ocean.