Source: Wikipedia.
Strong demand for homes in Charleston is beginning to impact the median list price in the city. Inventory is down substantially from last year so there are less homes listed for sale and those that are listed are selling far quicker than they were 12 months ago. This is by far a seller’s market so if you’re hoping to buy real estate in Charleston you’d be better of waiting until the market cools a little going into the winter. On the other hand, anyone hoping to sell should list their home now and make the most of the rising prices and lower inventory.
Less Homes For Sale in Charleston
If you’re a buyer in Charleston right now you may be wondering what’s going – there are less homes to choose from compared to both last month, and this time last year. Current figures stand at a total inventory of 1,221 which is a 6 percent drop from just last month (when inventory was 1,298) and a huge drop of 19 percent from this time last year when there were 1,506 homes listed for sale.
Statistics are a little more baffling when we look at the median days on market. You’d expect with less inventory than last month the days on market would go down – more demand for the homes listed usually means they sell quicker – but median DOM has actually risen by 7 percent over last month, climbing to 89 as opposed to 83. Comparing to last year figures are a little closer to what we’d expect to see. Median days on market this time last year was 113, but having dropped to 89 days now, that’s a huge 21 percent difference.
Prices are Rising in Charleston
So how has this affected the prices of property in Charleston? Well, they’re going up – from last month there’s been a 6 percent increase in median list prices, changing from $325,000 to $345,000. Interestingly though this is the same increase from this time last year, which tends to suggest that Charleston often develops this pattern of increasing list prices coming into the busy summer season, then a decrease through winter.
The median price per square foot shows similar changes – it has risen by 6 percent to $176 per square foot from $167 last month, but has actually dropped 1 percent from this time last year when figures were $177 per square foot.
South Carolina Mortgage Rates Fluctuating
It’s difficult to see any real pattern in the mortgage rates for South Carolina right now as they’ve been so up and down over the last year. On the whole mortgage rates are lower than this time last year though we keep seeing small spikes in the rates from month to month. Realistically, these changes aren’t too different to the national rates with just a few discrepancies such as towards the end of 2012.
Mortgage rates have just increased quite sharply to 3.38 percent which is up 5 basis points from last week’s average in the state. Still, with rates remaining lower than 4 percent this is good news for buyers in South Carolina.
