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September 2009 - Posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:36 AM

Charleston real estate market report, sales and inventory, September 30, 2009

A little blip here in August as sales declined rather than increased from July so it appears that the two months did a flip flop from their traditional trend. So the really important thing is to look forward and see how sales fare in the next 3 months
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:23 AM

Case-Shiller Index falls less than forecast

Positive signs on the housing market from the latest Case-Shiller Index showing prices falling less than forecast. “The worst has passed,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:05 AM

Relocating to Charleston

There are a number of very good reasons to consider relocating to Charleston but at the top of the list this morning, these two words come to mind. Beautiful weather.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, September 28, 2009 6:34 AM

Is a good appraisal an oxymoron

Maybe it depends on how you define good as Bill Clinton might have famously said. HVCC is all the news in real estate today as deals are getting killed by low appraisals. It's not that the appraisals are bad because they're coming in low, it's
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, September 26, 2009 6:19 AM

Charleston ranked number 2 "Next City" by Next Generation Consulting

Next Generation Consulting just ranked Charleston number 2 on their Next Cities ™ list in the mighty macros class for cities with populations between 100,000 and 200,000. Young knowledge workers said that where they lived was more important than
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, September 25, 2009 7:37 AM

[-2.7%] Was that a blip in the August existing home sales report

After just noticing that I haven't written a real estate related post in the past week, maybe it would be a good idea to get back to the purpose of the Charleston real estate blog and not write about water closets as I had intended to today. The National
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 6:31 AM

Funny misspellings in the Charleston MLS

Sometimes you just have to laugh as you view Charleston real estate listings. When writing property descriptions in the Charleston MLS, some real estate agents occasionally misspell words or use a word the wrong way. Spell check is good but once in a
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 6:13 AM

The first day of fall 2009

... prompts this question. Why do we bother to rake leaves when they just fall again the next day or is that why it's called fall and not autumn?
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, September 21, 2009 6:13 AM

It was twenty years ago today, Charleston and Hurricane Hugo

Like The Beatles sang in Sgt. Pepper's, it was twenty years ago today when Hugo slammed into the Charleston Harbor making landfall on the Isle of Palms just before midnight on September 21st and into the early morning on September 22nd wreaking havoc
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, September 20, 2009 6:25 AM

Pictures of Summerville

A few photos taken on a beautiful morning in Summerville. And I'm going to add a new tag, photographs, to the Charleston real estate blog and promise to find the time to take more pictures from around the Charleston area. Here is a photo of Short
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Saturday, September 19, 2009 4:54 AM

[arrrgh] It's Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009

Jonathan Miller at Matrix introduced me to Talk like a Pirate Day a few years ago and I've been looking forward to September 19th so join me today in having some fun by talking like a pirate. Arrrgh! Here's the story behind the fun from Wikipedia
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Thursday, September 17, 2009 8:24 AM

Will the homebuyer tax credit be extended or changed

Lots of buzz regarding whether the homebuyer tax credit will be extended past the November 30th deadline. Currently, it is an up to $8k tax credit available only to first time homebuyers or those who haven't owned a home for the past three years and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 17, 2009 7:13 AM

FDIC launches foreclosure prevention initiative

Instead of another "hope" program that has had little to no success so far, the FDIC has launched a foreclosure prevention initiative including stopping the many "foreclosure rescue scams" that promise false hope to consumers at risk
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 7:41 AM

Buyers are searching tax records for what Charleston home sellers paid to determine value

Actually, the price paid for a home does not necessarily always determine today's real market value ... but ... the price paid and when it was purchased does matter often enough that potential buyers of Charleston homes for sale are using the tax
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:38 AM

What's the square footage [really]

Many buyers who are searching for Charleston homes for sale would like floor plans, room measurements and accurate square footage of homes that are interesting to them. If they happen to be from another part of the country and are considering relocating
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, September 14, 2009 6:57 AM

Sold price to list price comparison

What price should you offer on a home listed for sale in the Charleston real estate market if you want your offer to be accepted. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules and it will always depend on the specific home that you are interested in. Many
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 6 Comments
Sunday, September 13, 2009 6:18 AM

If you find a listing that appears to be too good to be true, it's probably a short sale

Everyone is searching the Charleston MLS looking for a great deal. And some Charleston homes for sale are a great deal, there are both foreclosures and short sales and homes being offered by motivated sellers. But some short sales that you might find
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, September 12, 2009 5:31 AM

Charleston mortgage rates at 5% again

Mortgage rates are back at their lows for the year in Charleston with 30 year fixed rates for both conventional and FHA financing quoted at 5%. 5 seems to be the magic number in mortgages and if you can buy a home (or refinance) with a 5% mortgage, there
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 10, 2009 6:44 AM

[More on] Seasonal trends in Charleston real estate

Sometimes Google just amazes me with the amount of information that you can find. Recently I wrote about seasonal trends for Charleston home sales and home prices . There has always been a drop in the numbers of visitors to my website toward the end of
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:33 AM

How foreclosures impact home prices

From the WSJ , a new study by LPS Applied Analytics looked at the link between the number of foreclosures and the rate of home price declines. You can find all state data on percentage of foreclosures to all home sales and home price declines by state
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, September 08, 2009 7:25 AM

How low can you go

Limbo is a game, the game is how low can you go. And no matter how often I write about the subject of lowball offers, it seems that some buyers want to go even lower. While no one should have to pay more than they want when buying Charleston real estate,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, September 06, 2009 6:31 AM

Buying a home in Charleston is not the same as shopping at Macy's Labor Day sale

First of all, I don't know why we don't have a Macy's in Charleston. We have Saks, Belk, Dillard's, Sears and Penney's for our department store choices but no Macy's. But when you are buying a home for sale in Charleston, it is
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, September 04, 2009 7:00 AM

This was such a nice thank you, I have to share it

An out of town client is considering relocating to the Southeast and are considering several locations. They visited last week and I spent a day showing them homes for sale in Summerville that might be interesting to them and I just got the nicest thank
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 03, 2009 6:25 AM

Looking for good deals on Charleston homes for sale

Most buyers today are looking for good deals when buying a home and why not. There are certainly lots of available homes for sale throughout the Charleston area. Some are foreclosures, some are short sales and some are just being offered for sale by motivated
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 5:10 AM

Charleston mortgage report Sept 2, 2009

Wow, first of all, I can't believe it's September and it's actually a little cool this morning. But you didn't come here for the weather report, you're interested in mortgage rates. And the good news is that 30 year fixed rates continue
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 01, 2009 7:02 AM

Would you rather be a client or a lead

The answer should be obvious. Of course, you'd rather be a client rather than a commodity being sold. But apparently, either lead generation companies are over promising and under delivering or quite a few people don't mind being a lead. Yesterday,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments