Charleston real estate market report, home prices, October 1, 2009
Even though sales declined in August from July, prices actually increased slightly month over month but of course were down on a year over year basis. But I think that rather on focus on what the median and average price may be, it is more important to take a look at how the changing Charleston real estate market is affecting price.
What I mean by that is that traditionally, homes selling for less than $300,000 represented 74.5% of the market, homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000 represented 17% of the market and homes selling for over $600,000 represented 8.5% of the market and for as long as I've analyzed market statistics, those numbers held fairly steady.
But that has changed this year. With so much of the activity at the lower end of the market, homes selling for less than $300,000 now represent 78.81%, homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000 now represent 15.01% and homes selling for over $600,000 now represent just 6.18% of the market.
So with more activity at lower sales points, the median and the average have to correspondingly be lower.
And what does all that have to do to the price of your home. Nothing. If you are selling your home in Charleston today, all this stuff about median, average, zillow zestimates, the College of Charleston home price index, Case-Shiller and all the rest don't matter. What matters is how many houses your home is competing against for a buyer.
Because buyers have a lot of choices and the smartest buyers will not fall in love and overpay for a home, in fact, some might pick a home that came in 2nd or 3rd place in their rankings if they can get a better deal. Now I'm not saying that's right or wrong and nobody should buy a home just because they can get a good deal but let's face it, with the many choices buyers have today, I'm fairly certain home number 2 or 3 is a pretty nice home they will enjoy in the years to come.
And because you came here to get the market statistics, with no further ado, here you go.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Median home prices
Average home prices
Year over year comparison
There are several interesting things here when you take a look inside the numbers. The price per square foot is down less than 1% for homes selling under $300,000 but is down 15+% and 12+% for homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000 and homes selling for over $600,000 respectively even though the median sales price and the average sales price are mostly unchanged while the sales price for homes under $300,000 is down around 6%.
And take a look at the sold price compared to list price and you can clearly see that at higher price points where there is more inventory, the less buyers are paying on average to list price. Can you say negotiable?
