Mid-Year Real Estate Recap for Myrtle Beach and Surrounding Areas

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As you already know, I like to keep in regular touch with my valued friends and clients with the latest news in our marketplace. I believe that by delivering these quarterly market reports, you can follow the trends in our marketplace and see the progression of our real estate outlook. Today’s update entails a comparison of the first half of the current year with the same time during 2011. Our greatest look into the future comes through a lens of the past and that is exactly why such an update is very telling.

Single-Family Homes

Looking at the first six months of the year, as compared to the same time the previous year, we have seen a big jump in single-family homes sales – up 8% this year from last in the first six months of the year. Prices remain relatively flat, with the median sale price of single-family homes dropping 1%. Also with single-family homes, we saw distressed sales drop a little bit with 29% of all sold homes this year attributed to distressed properties as opposed to about 33% last year.

Condominiums

We saw a slight increase in units sold at a 2% increase this year over last. The median sale price of condominiums this year is down 2%. The number of distressed properties sold from the total number of sold properties dropped from 36% last year to 31% in the first half of 2012, showing a positive trend toward recovery.

Vacant Land Lots

Land sales have increased significantly this year, with a 37% increase of either residential lot sales or lots that went under contract in 2012 versus the same time frame last year. The median sale price dropped 17% and the total number of distressed sales within all the closings this year so far is approximately 46%, leaving us with a fair amount of available land lots for sale.

Inventory

Inventory trends this year as compared to last are picking up. At the present time we are seeing about 14% fewer available properties in the market versus the previous year’s first six months. This trend is promising since lower inventory jumpstarts the process of rising prices. Right now we are holding about ten months of inventory – slowly improving from the previous several years’ figures. As the number of months’ inventory on hand approaches the six-month mark, we can expect to see prices begin to rise.

Greg’s Analysis

We seem to be at the bottom of our market but we have another 18 to 24 months before we can begin to see recovery underway – a process that will start once our inventory levels reach the 6-month mark and balances out. Once a recovery begins, we can be hopeful of seeing some appreciation in our marketplace.

Distressed sales are dropping, prices only went down slightly and our inventory continues to go in the right direction (downward). Still, prices will not go up for some time because in addition to the relatively high number of properties we need to process, there is additional new construction activity going on in our area too. In fact, the developers of all the new subdivisions coming up are offering very competitive prices. One more factor to keep in mind is homeowners that have been on the fence for a while now – sellers are finally unloading their properties on the market, keeping inventory high and prices relatively low.
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If you have any questions or would like to discuss your real estate goals – contact me today. I’d love the opportunity to meet with you!