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April 2008 - Posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:43 PM

A new era begins

... with new geraniums on my front porch. A last look at the past ... Longtime readers will know that I enjoy posting pictures of my garden and one of my favorites are the geraniums we've nurtured for the past 4 years. But this spring, they just became
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 3:31 PM

Charleston real estate market report, March 2008 home prices

Despite declining unit sales in most classifications, Charleston home prices continue to be very stable despite what you may hear and read in the media. While earlier today I reported a 5% decline in median prices from sales in March of 2007 and sales
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 3:12 PM

Charleston real estate market report, March 2008 inventory and absorption rate

Inventory is continuing to climb in the luxury segment but has stabilized at elevated levels for both single family homes as well as condos and townhomes. Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 3:02 PM

Charleston real estate market report, March 2008 unit sales

Unit sales continue to be soft although inventory has stabilized at elevated levels. Prices are showing a little slippage but most of the decline in price is due to weaker sales of Charleston luxury real estate. Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:09 AM

List (asking) price vs sales price April 2008

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite measuring tools for the Charleston real estate market. It's interesting to note that the list or asking price is significantly higher than prices buyers have paid for homes in each classification (the lone
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:44 AM

Median sales prices

Median sales prices in the Charleston real estate market for the past 12 months. Home prices are off 5.7% in the past year on a median basis in the Charleston area. There will be lots more data and analysis to come in the next few days.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, April 28, 2008 6:03 AM

Buying distressed properties in Charleston

... is not as easy as late night infomercials are likely making it out to be. I get a phone call or an email every few days from first time home buyers who are very interested in buying foreclosures and short sales throughout the Charleston real estate
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 27, 2008 6:43 AM

Your odds of selling a Charleston home

... in today's Charleston real estate market improve dramatically when buyers can actually see your home. The Charleston MLS uses Centralized Showing Service so that Charleston area real estate agents only have to call one phone number to make appointments
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, April 25, 2008 6:37 AM

How important are ceiling fans to stay cool

I would say very. And it's not summer yet. We have ceiling fans throughout our home and a funny thing happened the other day. I was getting a little stepladder out to adjust the fan in my home office to a higher rate of speed as the season started
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
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Thursday, April 24, 2008 9:12 AM

Prudential Carolina Real Estate to go independent

Prudential Carolina Real Estate will be dropping their franchise affiliation with Prudential on May 1 when they will become Carolina One Real Estate, an Independent company affiliated with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. Prudential Carolina
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 24, 2008 6:40 AM

Charleston property tax

One of the most often asked questions from people who are considering relocation to the Charleston area is how much will the property taxes be. Yesterday, I was visiting various real estate blogs and wanted to learn more about an agent before commenting
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:35 AM

Fiscal irresponsibility

I know I'm supposed to write about Charleston real estate on my blog ... but after all, it's my blog and I can write about whatever I want So when I notice that Target said it wrote off 8.1% of its March credit card loans, I began to wonder what
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 6:20 AM

Earth Day and future trends in housing

Green is certainly one of the most important trends in housing today and as we celebrate Earth Day , I can't think of a better time to analyze what the impact of incredibly high gasoline prices might have on future housing trends. There seems to be
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, April 21, 2008 6:52 AM

Charleston home search, no registration required

... so why do some people bother to use a phony email. I like to search the Internet and do it anonymously and it's one of the main reasons that I don't require registration for searching the Charleston MLS. My thinking is that once you feel comfortable
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, April 19, 2008 6:35 AM

Swimming pools

Many out of town buyers always ask why most homes in the Charleston real estate market don't have a swimming pool in the backyard. After all, Charleston weather is mild during winter, spring and fall are long and beautiful seasons and summer is hot
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Friday, April 18, 2008 1:20 PM

Real estate commissions

... and a tale of 2 buyers. UPDATE: by the time I finish writing, it will be 4 buyers. I've been very fortunate to work with many wonderful buyers (and sellers) during my career as a Charleston real estate agent. Of course, real estate agents work
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Thursday, April 17, 2008 5:25 PM

Overpriced listings do not sell

Overpriced listings don't sell and I don't take overpriced listings, they are a waste of time and money, after all, a real estate agent only gets paid if a home closes and if you take an overpriced listing that has slim to no chance of even being
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:56 PM

It's not just subprime

There is so much news about the growing problem of foreclosures, members of Congress and those running for President are tripping over themselves to figure out some way to bail out those who are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure. After all, the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 2:19 PM

Positive real estate news

Some days the headlines are a little better for the beleaguered housing industry. The Post and Courier followed up Saturday's miserable headlines and yesterday's foreclosure listings (the master in equity announcement is always on Tuesday) with
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 6:36 AM

Foreclosure data, March 2008

I've talked about rising foreclosures in the past few days, The Post and Courier headlined the growing problem on Saturday so let's cut to the chase and look at the numbers. Courtesy of RealtyTrac, in March, South Carolina ranked 35th of all the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 4:52 AM

It's April 15th, do you need more time to file your taxes

It's nobody's favorite day of the year again, April 15th and many people are doing all the last minute tax stuff in order to file their return. I stopped in Starbucks yesterday for a coffee and was amused to see someone taking up 2 tables and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, April 14, 2008 3:07 PM

Mortgage delinquency rates

... have been rising and that isn't a big surprise. The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating interactive map showing changes in the mortgage delinquency rates for the last 10 quarters going back to the fourth quarter of 2005. South Carolina always
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Monday, April 14, 2008 5:58 AM

How a real estate agent is selected

Charleston real estate consumers generally seem to choose their real estate agent in one of three ways. Friend, neighbor or relative - just about everyone has a friend in real estate, lives in the same neighborhood as a real estate agent or is related
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 13, 2008 6:27 AM

The greatest Masters

On April 13, 1986, Jack Nicklaus came from behind to win what many people consider to be the greatest Masters of all time. Today is also April 13th. 22 years later, Tiger Woods has an opportunity to match the excitement by coming from behind in a major
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Sunday, April 13, 2008 5:12 AM

Charleston real estate headlines

I'm not sure which was worse, the headlines in the newspaper or the wind blowing too hard to be able to turn the pages of the paper as my wife and I tried to read the newspaper yesterday on the outdoor patio of Margarita's, a Mexican restaurant
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 10 Comments
Friday, April 11, 2008 5:38 AM

Ummel's lose lawsuit against real estate agent

Out in San Diego, Vern and Marty Ummel sued their real estate agent because they felt they overpaid for their home a couple of years ago. They said that "similar" homes sold for less and their agent withheld the information from them. The jury
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 10, 2008 6:40 AM

It's The Masters

Any list of great Charleston golf courses has to begin with The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island but nothing compares to Augusta National and the annual kickoff to spring, The Masters. As a child growing up in a golfing family in the cold Midwest (my father
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008 6:08 AM

Charleston homes for sale

... by auction. What's next, a raffle? There are so many listings of Charleston homes for sale that many sellers are growing not just weary but desperate when their home doesn't sell. I just noticed a home on the Charleston MLS hotsheet at a ridiculously
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Tuesday, April 08, 2008 7:51 AM

This post is not about the new Zillow Mortgage Bourse

... because it's been thoroughly discussed across the real estate blogosphere. As always, the gang at The BloodhoundBlog covered Zillow's new mortgage bourse. Check out the Odysseus Medal competition with links to well written articles including
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
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Monday, April 07, 2008 1:28 PM

Buying Charleston homes at a discount

... depends on what kind of discount you are thinking of. A buyers market means that buyers have lots of choices because there is too much inventory and more sellers are competing for fewer buyers. A buyers market does not necessarily mean that all lowball
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, April 05, 2008 7:47 AM

Fiduciary is more than a fancy word

Fiduciary duty is more than just a fancy word for loyalty and care. A real estate agent owes the following fiduciary duties to a client: Loyalty Obedience Disclosure Confidentiality Reasonable care and diligence Accounting But according to Wikipedia ,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Friday, April 04, 2008 7:11 AM

Bank response to short sales - slow might be too kind a word

I've written about short sales before and opined they are a waste of time for buyers to pursue. Don't confuse buying a short sale with a foreclosure which is actually lender owned property (REO) that can generally get done. An article by Reuters
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, April 04, 2008 5:58 AM

Incentives announced by The Ponds

The Ponds is kicking April off in a big way as presenting sponsor of the Summerville YMCA Flowertown Festival this weekend and hosting The Ponds Lowcountry Living Tour April 12 - April 27 including a free concert by the Summerville Community Orchestra
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 03, 2008 12:21 PM

Summerville Flowertown Festival

The Summerville YMCA Flowertown Festival presented by The Ponds is this weekend and let's hope the rain stops (it usually does) and that the azaleas are in full bloom (they usually are). Once again, The Ponds is sponsoring and it's a natural fit
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 03, 2008 5:57 AM

Dumb and Dumber

I never saw the movie but I always loved the phrase. Click here to read about Congress in action on mortgage, real estate and other relief packages at Yahoo!
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:07 AM

New interactive mortgage maps

Very cool new interactive mortgage maps from the NY Federal Reserve . Different maps display information for subprime and alt-A loans by state, county and zip code including: Loans per 1000 housing units Loans in foreclosure per 1000 housing units Loans
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, April 01, 2008 3:59 PM

Charleston South Carolina real estate market report, February 2008 analysis

A little different format for the Charleston real estate market report once again. Due to the large amount of data presented, the report was getting a bit unwieldy to view and actually, difficult for me to upload. So I'm breaking the report into 4
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:46 AM

Charleston real estate market report, February 2008 home prices

Charleston home prices have remained consistently stable on both an average and median basis in all housing classifications despite high inventory levels and declining unit sales. Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:02 AM

Charleston real estate market report, February 2008, inventory

Inventory in the Charleston real estate market continues to be high but has declined slightly from the peak reached last summer for all properties under $600,000. There is so much inventory in the Charleston luxury real estate market that the absorption
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 5:42 AM

George Clooney to star as

... Charleston real estate agent Howard Arnoff in a new movie scheduled to begin filming today. Meg Ryan will play Howard's wife Polly. Good looking guy. They resemble each other so closely they could be twins. Could today be April Fools Day? Nah
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments