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 some cases there is still price appreciation. It flies in the face of logic, conventional thinking and the law of supply and demand. But nonetheless, Charleston home prices have been surprisingly stable.
While unit sales have declined and inventory has increased, prices for single family homes under $600k have only declined by 3% for the past 12 months compared to sales for the previous 12 months. Prices have actually increased by almost 12% on an average basis and 4.65% on a median basis for condos and townhomes under $600k. Prices in the Charleston luxury home market has been resilient as well and I'll remind you that the big increase in unit sales for luxury condos reflect a large development on the Isle of Palms that was completed earlier this year.
Anecdotal evidence still points to pricing pressure in the market, listing agents are indicating their sellers are very motivated, when you show homes to clients, there is a lot of follow up on their part to determine whether there was any interest in the property and if you indicate as much, they are stressing that their sellers will be very receptive to any and all offers. With fewer buyers around, it only makes sense that if you are currently selling, you want your home to be chosen above the competition. So despite statistics that continue to show prices mostly steady, you can buy significantly below current market prices.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
