Weichert Realtors – J.D. MacNair would like to give you some good real estate news!

This is the first time there has been an uptick in the last 2 years on condos.

Grand Strand condominium sales went up 2 percent in June, marking the first time in two years that any local real estate sales have increased and signalling a potential bottoming of the market.

Single-family house sales did not fare as well, dropping 19 percent compared with sales in June 2008.

The statistics pulled this week from the Multiple Listing Service also show that the median house price – the price at which half sold for more and half sold for less – is down 14 percent to $180,630, and the median condo price is down 19 percent to $130,000, when compared with the same month last year.

Both residential and condo sales dropped overall through the first six months of the year, but the decline was not as large as the same period in 2008.

The market has bottomed out, and residential sales are not declining as rapidly, said Tom Maeser, the market analyst for the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors.

Several Grand Strand Realtors said they’re starting to see improvements.

Rachel Broadhurst of Century 21 Broadhurst and Associates said that sales are steady and consumer attitudes are improving.

“Everything we’re selling is price driven,” she said. Most of her sales are in the lowest price range, she said.

It may take up to two years to get rid of the excess inventory and get back to a more stable market, but things will continue to improve, Broadhurst said.

“We will continue to increase business, we will continue to inch up in just about all the types of real estate,” she said.

This first recovery is based on price, and the condo market is where the low prices are really fueling sales, Maeser said. The median condo price through the first half of the year was lower than it has been since 2005.

Investors, who make up 66 percent of the Grand Strand real estate market, are more likely to purchase condos, which may also account for the slight uptick in sales, Maeser said.

Current investors are more stable and are not as likely to be looking to quickly flip a house as their counterparts several years ago during the real estate boom, he said.

“Prices have reached such a point that they can’t go much lower, so the typical investor comes back year after year; they know these are good deals,” Maeser said.

Penny Boling of Century 21 Boling & Associates said that with low interest rates and low prices, she is starting to see multiple offers on some of the lower-priced units.

“I think people are realizing it’s a great time to buy,” she said.

Boling said the buyers she is seeing are primarily purchasing properties for personal use, rather than as investments.

Another trend she has seen is an increase in buyers paying with cash.

In the first half of the year, 35 percent of sales were cash sales, the largest percentage in more than 10 years, according to statistics Maeser compiled.

Boling said she’s seen more cash transactions in the past three months than in the previous five years.

Carolyn Harbin, a Realtor at Surfside Realty, said today’s buyers are well aware of the good deals that are available.

“They’re trying to get the best deal they can get for the least amount of money, and they are doing their homework,” she said.

Harbin said normal sales have started to stabilize and that some subdivisions will be raising prices because they are seeing sales pick up.

“I hope for all the sellers we’ve seen the worst of it,” she said. “For all the buyers, they still have the chance to get a heck of a deal.”
Contact ADVA SALDINGER at 626-0317.

News – Local
Friday, Jul. 17, 2009
Condominium sales creeping up in Myrtle Beach area
June marks first rise in sales since 2 years ago
By Adva Saldinger – asaldinger@thesunnews.com