Charleston real estate market report, Sales, inventory and home prices, August 2011
Another very good month with August sales significantly higher than the August of 2009 or 2010 and inventory levels (although still elevated) much lower than previous years. Prices though are still being pressured by both sales of distressed properties and lots of inventory for buyers to choose from and you can see that the price based on dollars per square foot is down year over year for all Charleston homes as well as all price range classifications.
There is also much better news on the absorption rate front with the rate now down to single digits for 6 consecutive months for homes selling for less than $300,000 and since 6 months is considered a balanced market, it is still very much a buyers market but most definitely on the mend for home sellers. But it should start to go back up as we get into the seasonally slower fall and holiday time period.
One further sign of health for the Charleston real estate market is the continued good performance of both the move up market of homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000 and luxury Charleston real estate selling for $600,000 and higher.
All in all, a very nice report this month.
Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Year to Year Comparison and Home Prices
Sales and Inventory
Home Sales
Inventory
Inventory and Absorption Rate
Inventory is represented by the blue line and corresponds with the left axis, the absorption rate is represented by the red line and corresponds to the right axis.
Sales, Inventory and Absorption Rate for all homes and by price range
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.