Charleston real estate market report, sales and inventory, Dec 2, 2008
Unit sales continue to decline and inventory remains elevated but the absorption rate is now at stratospheric levels. Consider for a moment that the overall absorption rate for all Charleston real estate is over 1 year of inventory when anything over 7 months is just considered to be a buyers market.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Immediately below is a chart of all sales in the Charleston real estate market for the past two years. The blue line represents 2007 and the red line represents 2008. A breakdown by price range and housing type follows.
I mentioned the absorption rate previously. Take a look at the number of months (or convert it to years) especially in the case of luxury Charleston real estate where you find it will take over 4 years to absorb the current inventory of luxury single family homes and an astounding 10 years to absorb luxury condos and townhomes at the current sales rate. The condo/townhome rate is subject to wide fluctuations as you'll notice it was under 1 year as recently as earlier this year.
The current inventory (inv) column reflects the number of active listings on the market on the 16th day of each month. The months of inventory (mo) column is equal to the current inventory divided by the monthly sales. This reflects how many months it would take to sell out of inventory at the current month's rate of sale. It can also be referred to as the absorption rate.
