Charleston real estate market report, Aug 2008, home prices
You'll notice some additional information with this month's Charleston home price report. In addition to comparing prices by housing classification, single family homes and condos / townhomes less than and more than $600k, statistics for all Charleston home sales are now included.
The first chart compares the median sales price for all Charleston real estate sold from last year to this year. The blue line represents 2007 and the red line represents 2008 and yes, the median price has declined slightly every month but one.
It's not quite as dramatic a price drop as Case-Shiller is reporting in the graphic that follows. Of particular interest in the Case-Shiller index are the severe price declines in both Las Vegas and Phoenix. Then, cities in California and Florida have the dubious distinction of holding down 3rd through 7th place. In the middle are Detroit, Washington, Minneapolis and Chicago followed by more moderate declines in the balance of the metro areas surveyed.
From S&P Case-Shiller, "While the annual returns of the two indices continue to reach record lows, the pace of the decline has slowed, particularly over the last three month. For the three months of May thru July, home prices cumulatively fell about 2.2%; whereas for the three months of February thru April and November 2007 thru January, the cumulative rates of decline were closer to 6.0% - 6.5%."
I am not and I don't think anyone else is calling a bottom to home price declines nationally or locally and certainly, the financial crisis needs resolution. But when you look at the data for home prices in the Charleston real estate market, you just can't find the dire problems that you see elsewhere. On an overall basis, the median price in the Charleston real estate market declined from $205,000 to $204,632, or in other words, a price decline of just 0.18% on a year over year basis. For the housing bears, the median price did decline more substantially from July to August of this year, declining by 3.97% from $205,918 to $197,750.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
No matter which side of the political spectrum you happen to support, the economy is in perilous shape and a solution is vital. It's certainly sad to see the demise of several major firms, the loss of jobs and total destruction of shareholder value at several iconic American financial institutions.
The Democrats seemed to play the "blame game" while the Republicans did a lousy job of selling a plan that would "bailout" Wall Street and Main Street didn't buy it. From what I could tell, the taxpayers didn't perceive any benefit and felt that government was simply going to waste more taxpayer money.
And maybe it would be better if our elected officials did some good instead of putting reelection ahead of solving problems during the time they actually held office. Just my opinion.