Charleston real estate market report, sales, inventory and home prices, October 2011
It was another solid month for the Charleston real estate market in October although home sales did not beat October of last year yet but just a handful of additional late reporting sales will either match last year or edge it out slightly. But, you can be assured that 2011 will handily beat 2010 and that is good news for the Charleston housing market.
Some other good news to highlight is that inventory levels while still high by ordinary measures have been dropping consistently over the past 3 years. And last month I pointed out that sales in the luxury Charleston home segment were down sharply in September and worried whether it was a trend or just a one month blip and happily, October was a good month. However, it is pretty likely that luxury home sales won't beat last year.
So how about Charleston home prices. The news here is simply not as good. Whether you are looking at the median price, the average price or the price per square foot, prices are down slightly. I'll repeat the important word slightly because the media has some alarming articles regarding home prices declining much more sharply than we are seeing here in the Charleston market.
Having said that, until inventory declines more substantially and demand picks up, I wouldn't expect to see very much appreciation in home prices in the near future but I wouldn't expect to see significant declines either (unless the economy tanks and we can all hope that doesn't happen).
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 to 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.