Charleston home sales from the lows to the highs to where next?
Aside from normal seasonal trends, home sales in the Charleston real estate market has been pretty much a roller coaster ride for the past two years as seen by the chart below.
Highlights:
Stock market begins a serious slide led down by financial sector.
Financial crisis, Wachovia, WaMu, Fannie, Freddie, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Hank and Ben ask Congress to pony up 700 gazillion dollars or the world will end.
Stock market bottoms in March and home buyer tax credit is enacted to stabilize housing market.
Home buyer tax credit is extended and expanded.
While the tax credit has a slight extension for delayed closings, June is the last "real" month that will be impacted and as you can see, 2010 has been a very good year thus far. But all good things must come to an end and more than likely, with a lot of demand pulled forward, look for declining sales the balance of this year. June is traditionally the peak month with a usual dip in July followed by an uptick in August and then sales taper going into the holiday season. As to next year, it's the economy and jobs that will determine how the Charleston real estate market will do. Here's hoping for the best!
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.