January 2009 Charleston housing report
Understatement: I've seen better ways to start the year. January 2009 appears to be totally dismal for the Charleston real estate market with both sales activity and prices down sharply. It would appear that the mix of homes sold reflects higher levels of activity at the lower end of the market and foreclosures causing prices to decline more sharply than ever before. But buyers also know they are so firmly in control of the market that lower priced offers are finally being met with much less resistance from sellers.
The positive news is that January activity reflects the typically slower activity due to the Holidays and that since the first of the year, both website traffic and phone inquiries by interested potential buyers has picked up dramatically. We can also hope the spring season gets a nice boost from the new $8k tax credit for first time homebuyers.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
