Mount Pleasant Homes: Hot Market

If you are thinking about buying or selling Mount Pleasant homes, then you should know the latest stats from the Charleston MLS. First up, Closed Sales:

Although Closed Sales dropped at the end of 2014, that number has shot up. There were 119 Closed Sales in January, February saw 147 Closed Sales, and March saw 211 Closed Sales.

Interestingly enough, there were also 211 Closed Sales last March as well.

Across the nation, buyer demand is high, and the buyers aren’t waiting for Spring.

This upward trend of sales would seem to indicate that. Let’s see what the Pending Sales look like:

Pending Sales are an indicator of future sales, and this graph is trending just like the Closed Sales graph.

Nationally, Pending Sales were at their highest level in February since June of 2013.

February saw 229 Mount Pleasant homes Pending, and that number increased to 328 in March.

Last March there were 234 Pending Sales.

Here is a look at how home values are doing for Mt Pleasant SC real estate:

The Average Sales Price took a dip in February, but is back up in March. In January it was $482,013, in February it was $397,037 and in March the Average Sales Price increased to $480,538.

By the way, January was the highest Average Sales Price for Mount Pleasant homes since September 2007 ($505,261).

Here is a look at the Average Price Per Square Foot:

This looks a lot like the Average Sales Price graph–a dip in February, but otherwise this number is also up.

In January it was $190/sq ft, in February it was $185/sq ft, and in March it was $194/sq ft.

March is the highest Price Per Square Foot since April of 2008, also at $194/sq ft.

Let’s shift from home values to the length of time it takes to get sold, aka Average Days On The Market (DOM):

This number also took a dip in February. In January it was 78 DOM, down to 58 DOM in February and at 72 DOM in March. The lowest DOM in 2014 came in August at 47.

Finally, here is a look at the Months Supply Of Inventory of Mount Pleasant homes for sale:

That number has dropped sharply in 2015. In January we started the New Year with an average of 3.7 Months Supply, saw it drop to a 3.4 Months Supply in February, and down to a 2.9 Months Supply in March.

The last time we saw a Months Supply that low? June 2005 at 2.5 Months.

What is happening in Mt Pleasant shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.

Last year, the US Census Bureau named Mt Pleasant the 9th fastest growing city in the entire US, and the fastest growing Southern city.

Nationally, buyer demand is high and the buyers haven’t waited for Spring like they traditionally do.

You can see that locally in the Closed Sales and Pending Sales graphs–the numbers have shot up dramatically so far in 2015.

The big issue nationally is lack of inventory to meet this buyer demand. And, based on these numbers, that appears to be the case for Mount Pleasant as well.

Currently, there are 592 Mount Pleasant homes for sale. There is an additional 153 Pending Sales, and another 421 homes under contract.

In 2014, the highest month for Closed Sales was May, with 267. The highest month previous to that was December of 2005 with 320 Closed Sales. It looks like we are headed in that direction.

Mount Pleasant is booming, and it looks like we are seeing numbers we saw at the peak of the market back in 2005-2006.

Here is a look at home values, year-over-year, for March of the last 3 years:

10.7% is a big jump for 2015. Nationally, values are averaging around 4.5% increase year-over-year.

It will be interesting to see how outside factors affect the Mt Pleasant SC real estate market in 2015.

There is concern that increasing home values could price some buyers out of the market.

Nationally, the appreciation has slowed a little to help offset this concern.

Wage increases are another concern–for the last year home values have risen at twice the rate of wages, fueling concerns that housing will not be affordable for many.

Interest rates are also expected to rise. This could also cause a setback in the market.

However, a lot of these concerns are for first time buyers. At the current price points, first time buyers are probably not a large portion of the Mt Pleasant market.

Plus, Mt Pleasant is unique in that it is in high demand not only locally, but from people moving from all over.

For many, they are transferring because of a job opportunity–chances are, they are receiving a pay raise to move (or are having the move paid for by their company).

It will be worth watching to see how it all plays out, but so far, it looks like Mt Pleasant hasn’t been affected.

If you are thinking about buying in Mt Pleasant, then search the Mt Pleasant MLS at my Pam Marshall Realtor website.

I also have my Pam Marshall Realtor page for sellers.

And if you want to keep up with the latest MLS numbers then visit my Mount Pleasant homes stats page.