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May 2009 - Posts

Saturday, May 30, 2009 6:51 AM

Charleston real estate market report, home prices, May 30, 2009

For the past 8 months, Charleston home prices seemed to have stabilized at a slightly lower level. As we have discussed before, part of the reason is the different mix of home sales with much more activity at lower price points which translates into apparently
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Friday, May 29, 2009 7:15 AM

Charleston real estate market report, sales and inventory, May 29, 2009

It's once again that time of month to look at how the Charleston real estate market is faring and there aren't many surprises. Inventory continues its typical spring build but the increases are nominal, sales came in as expected, down just slightly
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, May 28, 2009 7:16 AM

Charleston mortgage report, May 28 2009

I'll interrupt our normally scheduled broadcast to give you a mortgage update. Regular readers will know that while mortgage rates are based on the price of mortgage backed securities, there has always been a close correlation between mortgage rates
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 7:13 AM

Century 21 Properties Plus files for bankruptcy protection

One of the Charleston region's largest real estate agencies, Century 21 Properties Plus filed for bankruptcy protection listing $375,000 in assets and more than $1.5 Million in liabilities. Read more from the Post and Courier. A quick glance at the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 5 Comments
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:50 AM

Consumer confidence up, home prices down

... and the stock market rallied. Are Americans coming to terms with the decline in home values. What other reason might there be for consumer confidence to soar from 40.8 in April to 54.9 in May other than the stock market has climbed better than 33%
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 6:21 AM

Read the Charleston real estate blog on Kindle

You can now subscribe and read the Charleston real estate blog on your Kindle from Amazon.com at the bargain price of only $1.99 per month. While you can read it for FREE on this website or through an RSS feed on your favorite feed reader, if you have
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, May 25, 2009 6:12 AM

Memorial Day 2009

Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff to summer, a time for the beach, boating or maybe a burger on the grill. But of course, Memorial Day is much more than that, a time to both honor and remember. I liked what Andy Rooney said on 60 Minutes last night
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Saturday, May 23, 2009 6:42 AM

Is that a nice safe area of Charleston to live in

One of the most common questions that I get asked is about how safe an area is. And while I'd love to be able to answer it, basically I can't because it's a violation of The Fair Housing Act to steer buyers to or from an area. Many people
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, May 22, 2009 6:22 AM

New record price set for home sale in Historic Charleston Peninsula

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about 4 recent homes selling for over $2 million and closing during April in Historic Charleston. Another home was pending at that time and now I can report that sale closed recently and set a new record price for a home
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 4:34 PM

Say a Prayer for Amy and Phil Mickelson

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a big fan of Phil Mickelson. I always hope that he'll hit the little white ball straight and win. When he doesn't, I hope he'll pull off a miracle recovery shot. Sometimes he does, he's exciting
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:31 AM

Too good to be true

We all remember the teaser mortgage rate ads offering below market interest rates and payments of just hundreds of dollars per month for homes selling for $300,000 and more. And we know where that got us. So today as Charleston real estate consumers search
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, May 18, 2009 1:11 PM

It's always the price that matters most

If you are selling a home in today's Charleston real estate market, you may have an absolute bottom price in your mind that you'll accept from a buyer. Of course, a buyer will more than likely also have a top price that they are willing to pay.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Saturday, May 16, 2009 6:43 AM

Where did the jobs vanish

A fascinating interactive map from Chris Wilson at Slate showing the progression of job losses around the country. You can see job growth and job losses by county for the past several years and you can also see an animation of the data. As to the Charleston
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, May 15, 2009 2:06 PM

Not so fast, wait for the official announcement

We all know how fast information can speed around the Internet. Read about something in more than a few places and it seems credible. Yesterday, I posted that FHA would allow the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit to be used as a down payment . It
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Thursday, May 14, 2009 12:55 PM

FHA to allow $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit to be used as down payment

The FHA will allow the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit to be used as a down payment. US Department of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan made the announcement at the National Association of Realtors legislative summit this morning. The
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:11 AM

William "Bill" Seidman 1921-2009

Bill Seidman was head of the FDIC during the Savings and Loan crisis in the late 1980's and early 1990's and worked with Congress to create the Resolution Trust Corp. to solve the mess. Most recently, he was the chief commentator for CNBC. Bloomberg
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009 7:41 AM

Random musings

I don't think my friend Jay Thompson, ThePhoenixRealEstateGuy , invented the phrase Random Musings but it seemed like the perfect title for today's roundup of, well, random musings. Actually, this is important! For the past week, the re.net has
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Monday, May 11, 2009 11:17 AM

After all, it's Charleston

I meet a number of people who are interested in relocation to Charleston. Some may be moving here because of a job transfer or just to find a job in Charleston. Many people are interested in relocating to Charleston when they retire. And others are interested
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Sunday, May 10, 2009 6:19 AM

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. Make MOM happy, buy her a home for sale in Charleston today!
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Saturday, May 09, 2009 6:49 AM

Is small the new big

The McMansion became the derisive term for excesses in housing as bigger became better so will the new trend in real estate be small. Is small the new big. Or better yet, will the future trend in housing be simply well designed space. The Charleston real
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, May 08, 2009 6:19 AM

Spoleto Festival USA 2009

Springtime in Charleston is quite simply the best season of the year with glorious weather and so many different events and things to do. The highlight of the spring season is of course, Spoleto Festival USA and this year, make sure to mark your calendars
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Thursday, May 07, 2009 6:13 AM

Black and blue and underwater

Zillow came out with their quarterly home value index for 161 metro areas and about the only good news is that Charleston isn't black and blue (and bruised) like so many other markets around the country. Highlights (or lowlights if you prefer) for
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 7:33 AM

What percentage of Charleston homes for sale do you want to find online

I can't imagine anyone not answering 100%. I just got an email from Zillow touting that their traffic is up 71% year over year and suggesting that I should advertise on their website to increase my business. Now unless millions of homeowners are visiting
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:41 AM

Luxury real estate in Historic Charleston

... is still very desirable. Despite rumours to the contrary, that real estate is dead as an asset class, several recent transactions clearly demonstrate that buyers are still interested in one of a kind luxury properties in Historic Charleston. During
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Monday, May 04, 2009 6:39 AM

Charleston real estate market report, home prices, May 4, 2009

The median price for a home is not always the best measure of home prices simply because it is a moving target so you can't actually buy a median priced home. It's primary value has always been as a measure of affordability by dividing the median
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Saturday, May 02, 2009 6:29 AM

Absorption rate by price range and area

Since the absorption rate is is defined as how long it would take to sell the available inventory of homes at the current sales pace if no new homes came on the market, it's interesting to see the different absorption rates by price range and by Charleston
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Friday, May 01, 2009 12:32 PM

Charleston real estate market report, sales and inventory, May 1, 2009

Supply and demand Supply is inventory and demand is sales and that is what is so fascinating about the absorption rate which tracks both data points. Sales declined somewhat a few years ago and then more sharply as the economy started to worsen in the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments