Welcome to Charleston Real Estate Blog Sign in | Help

August 2008 - Posts

Sunday, August 31, 2008 6:37 AM

Charleston real estate market report, July 2008, home prices

The Charleston real estate market differs from most other real estate markets around the country. Just look at Charleston home prices in the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months and you just don't see major price declines, in fact, in
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 30, 2008 7:04 AM

Charleston real estate market report, July 2008, unit sales

Unit sales continue to be lower than in previous years. The top graph is for single family homes under $600k which is the most important housing classification in the Charleston real estate market making up over 70% of all sales each month. Statistics
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 30, 2008 6:42 AM

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

Inventory and absorption rates in the Charleston real estate market continue to be elevated. Of interest is how the luxury condo / townhome absorption rate has escalated due to very high sales occurring earlier this spring and very few sales in the past
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, August 29, 2008 8:49 AM

Charleston home prices, average and median sales

There is a lot of misconception regarding home prices today, the media and some analytics have highlighted sharp price declines across the country. But real estate is local and the Charleston real estate market has performed much better than many other
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, August 28, 2008 10:24 AM

How are housing prices really doing

All the headlines are dire. Case-Shiller gets big press every month as their statistics show home prices plummeting. But what would National housing prices look like if California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona were omitted from the data. After all, real
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, August 28, 2008 7:53 AM

The credit crunch and you

An ask the agent question about mortgages in today's credit crunch environment: "How does the current credit crunch really affect me and can I still get a mortgage or any kind of loan anymore?" The short answer is yes but of course, there
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 5:48 AM

Are you motivated

After showing a home recently (actually I showed a lot of homes), I received this email from the listing agent. “If your client is at all interested in this home, the sellers are very motivated!” If you are selling your home in today's
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 6:22 AM

Feedback requests

When a Charleston real estate agent shows homes to their clients, they are asked to provide feedback in order to help the seller understand what buyers like and don't like about their home. It's basically an automated process with an email automatically
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Monday, August 25, 2008 4:50 AM

There are a lot of homes for sale

... in today's Charleston real estate market. And today's buyer probably would like to be able to see every one of them so that they can feel comfortable that they made the best possible decision on which home to buy. But you really can't.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 23, 2008 3:59 AM

The battle for listings

Consumer real estate search sites like zillow and trulia claim millions of listings. And other tech firms are investing millions of dollars to get a chance to be the winner in the listings battle. TechCrunch analyzes the fray with an excellent article
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Filed under: ,
Friday, August 22, 2008 7:09 AM

Is cash still king?

Jay Thompson, the Phoenix real estate guy had an interesting question from a potential buyer inquiring whether cash was still king . My take on the subject. Cash is always king. In real estate and in any other negotiation. Period. You will be a stronger
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, August 21, 2008 5:30 AM

It's back to school time in Charleston

All the Charleston area schools are now open as Dorchester II school district in Summerville starts today joining Berkeley County which returned on Monday and Charleston County which started on Tuesday. Getting around Charleston during the summer is always
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 5:38 AM

Hey Fay

Many people who are considering relocating to the Charleston area ask me if I worry about hurricanes and my answer has always been that you have to be aware of the possibility and pay particular attention during the peak season of late August to late
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 7:05 AM

Oh Zillow Oh

I was surprised to see Zillow's Q2 real estate update get coverage at face value without a discussion of the accuracy of their zestimates. Zillow's own website indicates a 10% +/- margin of error and yet, some very smart people like Barry Ritholtz
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Monday, August 18, 2008 11:19 AM

Help-U-Sell franchiser files for bankruptcy

You have to feel badly for FSBO's and others ... who don't want to pay high fees for real estate services. After all, it could be a lot of money. Real money. Your money. So if someone can successfully sell their home without paying a lot of money
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 6 Comments
Saturday, August 16, 2008 6:43 AM

Hey New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen is in Charleston tonight

With so many residents of New Jersey apparently deciding to relocate to Charleston, New Jersey's one and only, The Boss, is coming to Charleston tonight to entertain all the former Garden State residents and everyone else who loves his music at the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, August 15, 2008 6:12 AM

Boom and bust

The foreclosure problems are so heavily concentrated in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona that each appears to be sea of red. While the Charleston real estate market was very strong with high demand and above average price appreciation in the early
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Thursday, August 14, 2008 4:57 AM

Foreclosure trends

... and short sale sagas. RealtyTrac has just released the latest foreclosure report for July 2008 and not many changes once again. A little higher than last month, about double this month last year, most of the activity centered in the usual places.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 5:48 AM

You should be a client

... and not a lead . I get these kind of emails all the time (edited for anonymity) offering to sell me names of buyers who are supposedly interested in buying or selling a home in the Charleston real estate market. First of all, I don't know why
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 6:57 AM

South Carolina residents pay lower taxes

... than residents in many other states. I know everyone thinks that taxes are too high but on a comparable basis, the state and local taxes in South Carolina are lower than most states. According to a study by The Tax Foundation, South Carolina ranks
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Filed under: ,
Monday, August 11, 2008 5:36 AM

Headin' South

Long term migration trends in the United States illustrate many people moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West and of course the Charleston area has benefited from this trend with many people relocating to Charleston. Anyone who watched
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Saturday, August 09, 2008 5:49 AM

One word says it all

Scumbag.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, August 08, 2008 7:01 AM

Anxious sellers in today's market

I spent the past few days showing homes and noticed some sellers are getting especially anxious to sell their homes. Of course, with a lot of inventory available, there is a lot of competition to sell your home in today's Charleston real estate market.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:04 AM

Please turn off the lights

and lock the doors ... if you're the last person to be leaving New Jersey to move to Charleston. I work with a lot of people who are interested in relocating to Charleston from many different places and it could be coincidence or it might be a trend
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4:07 AM

Charleston is hot

Today will be the hottest day of the year in Charleston. Summers in Charleston are hot and humid but not as humid as you might think. The weather forecast in summer never changes very much, highs in the 90's, lows in the 70's, mostly sunny with
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 5:38 AM

Today's my birthday

I hope you don't mind a little self indulgence but today's my birthday. I personally don't eat cake very often (an occasional key lime pie or cheesecake are my favorites) but I found several on Flickr that I thought were very pretty and I
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, August 04, 2008 5:58 AM

Read carefully

My brother lives in California and called me the other day since we generally talk at least every other weekend. We talked about this and that and since he knows that I'm a Charleston real estate agent and is of course concerned about the current
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 02, 2008 5:36 AM

Sign of the times

It may be a buyers market but you can't necessarily steal a home, at least not this home for sale. Hat tip to Kris Berg for finding a little humor in today's tough housing market .
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, August 01, 2008 7:27 AM

Charleston real estate market report, June 2008 home prices

Prices for Charleston single family homes under $600,000 have finally shown a slight decline on a year over year basis comparing both the average and median sales price for the most recent 12 month period to the previous 12 month period. This classification
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments