Charleston real estate market report, sales, inventory and home prices, July 6, 2010
It was another banner month in the Charleston real estate market during May with the highest number of sales in three years. But a sneak peak ahead will show that June will be even better with 956 sales, 19 percent higher than June of 2009 and beating May by 4 percent. And the chart below will also show you that home prices have stabilized on a median basis during the first 6 months of the year proving there is a reason that it is called the law of supply and demand.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Home Prices
Home prices have stabilized during the first 6 months of this year with the median price improving to $185,000 after falling during 2008 and 2009. But with the persistently high inventory of homes for sale, don't look for any meaningful appreciation in the immediate future.
Sales and Inventory
Home sales
Monthly sales are represented by the blue line for 2008, the red line for 2009 and the yellow line for 2010.
A lot of demand was pulled forward due to the home buyer tax credit so look for slowing sales beginning in July. But Charleston has fared much better than many other places in the country so we should avoid some of the doom and gloom you may be hearing in the media.
Inventory and Absorption rate
Inventory is represented by the red line and corresponds to the left axis, the absorption rate is represented by the blue line and corresponds to the right axis.
Inventory has built a little more sharply than last year as some Charleston home sellers obviously feel that the worst is over and now is the time to put their homes on the market. That likely is true but there is a lot of competition and if you want to sell, your home must be priced right because it's still very much a buyers market.
Sales, inventory and absorption rate for all homes and by price point
There was nice improvement at all price points and it's nice to see higher sales but it is a little troubling to see persistently high inventory levels.
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.