Houses For Sale Charleston SC: A Look At The Local Numbers

In yesterday’s post I looked at data for the national real estate market, today I am looking closer to home to see how the market is for houses for sale Charleston SC.

For national real estate information we have the Home Price Expectation Survey and Existing Sales Report, as well as data from Case Shiller. For the local info I am relying on information from the Charleston MLS.

Here are the latest numbers. First, here are the Closed Sales for the entire Charleston SC real estate market for November:

The number of closed sales is declining. In November there were 977 closings, down from 1239 in October. However, it is important to keep things in perspective. First, the trend for the last few years has been declining sales towards the end of the year:

Although sales trended downward at the end of the year each of the last 3 years, you notice that overall, sales were up each year. That is better illustrated by the following graph:

Next is Pending Sales:

Pending Sales is also on the decline, but I included the last couple years in the graph so you can see that it mirrors the Closed Sales over the same time period. The numbers decline towards the end of the year, but they are up over previous years.

So, the number of homes sold is down, what about prices?

For the month of November, the Average Sales Price dropped to $283,651. In October, it was $299,166. The peak month for 2014 was July, which saw an average value of $315,276.

So, does this indicate a market that has cooled off, and is in decline? Keep in mind that nationally the rate of appreciation has slowed down, but both appreciation and prices are still moving upward.

We saw incredible appreciation numbers the last 1-2 years, but now the market is correcting that huge upswing and settling into a more normal, healthy real estate market.

So, is that the case in Charleston? Here is another look at Average Prices, broken down year-over-year:

So far, this year we are up 5.2% in values. A “normal” real estate market appreciation rate is between 3%-4%, so if this is considered a down market, then I think most people would take that.

Plus, many areas of Charleston have seen double digit percentage increases in prices (keep in mind this info is the entire Charleston MLS).

Next up is the Months Supply of Inventory:

Again, I included data from the last 3 years to give the proper perspective. This number has been in decline over the last couple years, and for November we are at a 4.9 Month Supply. Keep in mind, under 6 months of inventory indicates a sellers market and prices and values are on the increase.

If you read my blog post yesterday (and here is the link again), then you saw that nationally the market is doing very well.

What has happened is we aren’t seeing double digit rates of appreciation like we have over the last 1-2 years. But this is a good sign. This is classic market economics at work. The market can’t sustain double digit appreciation for too long (see: the real estate bubble burst 2007-2012).

At some point, it will correct itself. Nationally, the market is correcting itself and settling into a more stable rate of appreciation.

What is happening nationally is exactly what is happening locally. If you pay attention to the right numbers you see that the Charleston market is very healthy, and it continues to grow.

So, pay no attention when the media (national or local) scream about home sales are down.

Yes, over the course of 2014 sales have been down month to month at times, and at other times throughout the year sales were down year-to-year.

But, this has been the case nationally as well. But both the Charleston SC real estate market and national real estate market are showing sales numbers that are even or better than last year.

National predictions have the real estate market to continue to grow into 2015, then fully settling into a normal rate of appreciation through 2019.

What about Charleston? I would say that at the very least, we should follow the national projections.

However, I don’t see why Charleston won’t exceed them. Prior to the bubble burst, Charleston SC was one of  the hottest real estate markets in the country.

When the downturn hit, we didn’t get hit nearly as bad as many markets. Charleston was one of the first markets to recover. And during this recovery, Charleston is again one of the top markets.

Charleston’s economy remains strong, and our city is not reliable on just one industry. Google has a home here, and Boeing is going to expand operations here. People are moving to Charleston in large numbers (is there anyone left in Ohio?–that’s a joke!) everyday.

There are great opportunities for both buyers and sellers. Stay tuned as I am constantly reporting numbers from the Charleston MLS.

You can also check out my Charleston Real Estate stats page, in which these numbers are updated in real time so you can see the latest market stats.

I also have separate pages for each city within the Charleston MLS, so you can track more localized numbers.

If you, or anyone you know is looking at buying or selling houses for sale Charleston SC, then bee sure to have them contact me!