The Charleston real estate market is trending up
As indicated in the most recent Charleston real estate market report, the housing market in Charleston has been trending up. There are some naysayers who forecast a flood of foreclosures, the end of the home buyer tax credit or rising interest rates will cause a double dip, right now, the market looks pretty good.
And one important part of the improving trend is that it isn't just first time home buyers who have been actively buying homes but we are seeing the return of the move up and luxury home buyer pretty much absent for the past year.
Most every potential first time home buyer will have gone under contract by the end of April and because future sales will have been "pulled forward" (kind of like the cash for clunkers program where sales were sluggish in the next several months), it will be difficult to match last year's sales starting in July. But take a look at market statistics for the past 4 months compared to the previous 4 months when the original tax credit was due to expire and things don't look too bad so maybe there is cause for more optimism.
From August through November 2009, there were 3184 home sales and the average selling price was $236,839. From December through March there were 2317 home sales and the average selling price was $274,342. Now, before you get too excited that prices have soared by almost 16%, it reflects that more mid priced and luxury homes were selling instead of just entry level homes that most first time home buyers were buying. And don't worry about the decline in sales from 3184 to 2317 because that was during the holidays and the typically slow first couple of months of the year.
Any real improvement in the economy will be a big plus but overall, it's better to live in Charleston.