Charleston real estate market report, March 1, 2009, sales and inventory
Sales activity was down sharply for the second month in a row (and most likely will be in February as well) in the Charleston real estate market. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering the financial crisis accelerated during September, consumer confidence declined and the economy suffered its worst quarter in almost everyone's memory.
Let's first take a look at a chart of inventory (red line, left axis) and the absorption rate (blue line, right axis). While it might appear that inventory has declined sharply, a look at the left axis shows that it only dropped by 800 units and this is typical during the holidays and early in the year. Of course, the absorption rate has soared because fewer sales means that it will take longer to sell the current inventory at a slower sales pace. The actual inventory has stubbornly held at around 11,000 units for almost two years.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Here is a chart of sales activity for the past 2 years. It would be an understatement to say it's not a very pretty chart.
Charleston unit sales
Charleston inventory and absorption rate
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.