The conditions have been right for home sale prices to drop for some time with inventory levels continuing to increase. Yet, month after month, average home sales prices Charleston wide have continued to increase. The average sale price finally dropped in September. (see below) We saw a similar drop in July, and then back to an increase in August so we still don’t know for sure that we have a trend. October is another month. You can drill down into just about any part of town, even to the subdivision level, and prices have been increasing…in spite of increasing inventory levels.
Charleston is a great place to live. We have weather to die for with four seasons, lot’s of things to do for all ages, good schools. Cara and I have lived and worked in this area for 15 years. After living here for 10 years, we moved to Georgia in 2002-2004 and moved back. If you aren’t already sold on Charleston, you simply haven’t spent enough time here. If you’re already sold on Charleston, and are planning your move, the timing is right. It could get better possibly. Who can tell? I definately don’t subscribe to using market timing for investing in real estate. What you want to avoid is a “bubble” situation. There simply isn’t any evidence that suggests that we have that sort of thing here in Charleston. We don’t have any one industry like oil or technology that dominates our economy. There are a lot of people that still want to move here, and if anything is slowing things down, it’s that they’re having difficult selling their homes where they are now.
It’s certainly getting more difficult to buy a home now. 100% financing with moderate credit scores are going to go away. That will definately affect the number of buyers out there.
Sales and Inventory History
Monday, October 08, 2007
Category - Residential
| Month | Year | Monthly Sales | Avg ListPrice | Avg Sale Price | % Diff Sell/list | Avg DOM | Curr Inventory | Months Inventory |
| January | 2006 | 1180 | $320,178 | $312,341 | 97.55% | 63.0 | 5403 | 4.58 |
| February | 2006 | 1180 | $280,734 | $274,314 | 97.71% | 62.0 | 6182 | 5.24 |
| March | 2006 | 1627 | $306,203 | $298,971 | 97.64% | 66.0 | 6581 | 4.04 |
| April | 2006 | 1441 | $303,275 | $296,733 | 97.84% | 62.0 | 7042 | 4.89 |
| May | 2006 | 1660 | $325,230 | $316,575 | 97.34% | 60.0 | 7461 | 4.49 |
| June | 2006 | 1773 | $289,490 | $281,986 | 97.41% | 65.0 | 7934 | 4.47 |
| July | 2006 | 1466 | $299,368 | $291,011 | 97.21% | 63.0 | 8541 | 5.83 |
| August | 2006 | 1435 | $298,007 | $289,876 | 97.27% | 68.0 | 8832 | 6.15 |
| September | 2006 | 1464 | $279,815 | $271,870 | 97.16% | 71.0 | 9059 | 6.19 |
| October | 2006 | 1184 | $310,670 | $299,181 | 96.30% | 76.0 | 9476 | 8.00 |
| November | 2006 | 1166 | $286,093 | $277,676 | 97.06% | 79.0 | 9456 | 8.11 |
| December | 2006 | 1176 | $282,242 | $271,683 | 96.26% | 88.0 | 9150 | 7.78 |
| Total | 2006 | 16752 | $298,442 | $290,185 | 97.23% | 68.6 | 7,926 | 5.83 |
| January | 2007 | 893 | $316,597 | $304,946 | 96.32% | 97.0 | 9157 | 10.25 |
| February | 2007 | 977 | $284,609 | $274,896 | 96.59% | 99.0 | 9524 | 9.75 |
| March | 2007 | 1296 | $303,094 | $293,067 | 96.69% | 94.0 | 9998 | 7.71 |
| April | 2007 | 1086 | $303,123 | $294,057 | 97.01% | 91.0 | 10412 | 9.59 |
| May | 2007 | 1329 | $315,476 | $304,580 | 96.55% | 92.0 | 10705 | 8.05 |
| June | 2007 | 1360 | $336,438 | $324,334 | 96.40% | 89.0 | 10724 | 7.89 |
| July | 2007 | 1160 | $310,905 | $298,938 | 96.15% | 91.0 | 10685 | 9.21 |
| August | 2007 | 1133 | $332,407 | $319,387 | 96.08% | 94.0 | 10649 | 9.40 |
| September | 2007 | 878 | $306,711 | $296,856 | 96.79% | 95.0 | 10705 | 12.19 |
| Total | 2007 | 10112 | $312,151 | $301,229 | 96.50% | 93.6 | 10,284 | 9.33 |
| Total | 2006-2007 | 26864 | $305,297 | $295,707 | 96.86% | 81.5 | 9,105 | 7.50 |
Let us know your thoughts. It will be very interesting to see what happens to the supply of buyers out there.
1 response so far ↓
David Wolfe // October 10, 2007 at 3:02 pm
When buying high priced homes take into consideration loan amounts that may cost you a higher interest rate. The magic number is $417,000. Going over this loan amount will kick your rate up 3/4 of percent. If you do not have enough down payment money to go under this amount, you can get a home equity line of credit (2nd mortgage) to make your rates very attractive on both loans. For instance on a $600,000 sales price with 20% down payment of $120,000, you would need a loan for $480,000. Instead of financing the full amount in one loan at a higher interest rate you can do 15% of the sales price in a home equity line of credit of $90,000. Then your first mortgage (65% of the value) would be of $390,000 at the best interest rate available. Contact us at 849-5525, David at Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc to see how this can benefit your situation.
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