Homes in Charleston are still selling
... despite some media reports you may have heard that say housing is dead.
My client and I were looking at homes for sale yesterday and one was perfect so I called the listing agent to be sure that it was still available before sending a contract only to find out that it went under contract several hours earlier.
What's going on, I heard that nobody was buying homes since the tax credit expired. 
But apparently, some people are still buying homes, at least here in the Charleston real estate market. Yes, it's true, every day a number of homes go under contract in Charleston and while there are still a lot of homes for sale in Charleston, there are still buyers and sellers who agree on terms and eventually close on the sale.
Now, back to the mainstream media for a moment.
Among several interesting quotes in a Washington Post article on yesterday's Case-Shiller home price index report was this gem:
"The report shows the ship is dead in the water now that the homebuyer tax credits have expired," Mitchell Hochberg, a principal with Madden Real Estate Ventures, wrote in a research note.
And while we're on the Case-Shiller index for just a moment, while the index indicated that home prices increased by 4 percent over the past year, it is important to recognize that the index is a rolling 3 month average of repeat sales, not only was the report during the tax credit period but also during the seasonal high point of the real estate calendar, the all important spring selling season. So you should start to see some declines in prices as measured by Case-Shiller in a few months but once again, maybe not as sharp a decline as some doom and gloomers might have you believe and of course, the Charleston real estate market is not measured by Case-Shiller and we might be doing a little better than many other locations.
And back to yesterday for just a minute while I wrap up, the home was a pre owned home in a relatively new neighborhood and my client was also surprised to see many homes under construction because of course, we also hear that home builders are very pessimistic and housing starts are at an all time low.
Well, what's going on with that.
New home builders in Charleston are still building and selling new homes; they just aren't building as many spec homes as they did during the height of the housing boom, just a few at a time and of course, they are very happy to build to your exact specifications as well.
We'll look at what they have available today, maybe we can find that same perfect home as yesterday just waiting for us.