Charleston Real Estate Market Statistics | Charleston New Home Sales Market Research

Brad,

My Real Estate Finance and Investment class and I again thank you for your many forms of support. Your visit to our class in The Citadel MBA program was most appreciated, especially the valuable market information you brought us. All four of the project teams in the class made good use of The Charleston Market Report in their research; you were quoted and referenced in their presentations and written reports. They particularly enjoyed hearing your perspective on studying the real estate market in ways similar to your past studies of the stock markets. Your graphical analyses in the Report greatly aid in spotting the trends, turns and current status of the local real estate market. I can easily foresee your market report becoming the most relied-upon information published in the area. You are researching and writing on a market - - not producing a sales piece. We were also pleased to have you visit with us to be an observer as they presented their research projects of: (1) converting a 4-unit apartment site to a 2-unit, upscale condo site, (2) locating and developing a subdivision, (3) renovating and selling a house, and (4) locating and developing a franchised motel. Your comments gave them useful guidance which they were able to incorporate into their final, written reports.

I look forward to reading and using your report in my teaching and in my own investment activities in our Charleston area market. Best wishes for continued success,

Best wishes,

Dr. Sam G. Berry

Visiting Professor of Finance
The Citadel

Brad,

My name is RW from Summerville. I discovered your website about a week ago and I'm so glad that someone here in the tri-county area who works in the real estate biz decided to pull their head up out of the sand and start telling the truth about the real estate market.

Add me to your list of anecdotes of buyers who are preferring to sit on the sidelines for now. I can wait until greedy sellers finally wake up to the fact their homes aren't ACTUALLY worth 50 to 100 percent more than they were 3 years ago just because they slapped a coat of paint on the dining room and threw some pine straw in the flower beds! The gold rush mentality has gotten just about everybody in this area forgetting what they learned in high school economics. The basic laws of supply and demand still apply, even to the housing market. Your website captures these truths and presents them in a very thorough and convincing way.

My wife and I moved to the area because of a new job back in November of '05. At the time, everyone was telling us we had to buy a house immediately even if we hadn't sold our previous home yet. My first impression was that homes were overpriced, and after some research I found that appreciation rates had been in the 20% range for the area for the previous year. There were also 60,000 homes either under construction or planned for the next 5 years! I took a gamble and bucked what everyone here was telling me and decided that I would rent a place until our old house sold.

I can't tell you how many heated arguments I started then by merely suggesting that 20% price appreciation cannot be sustained every year, even here in paradise. People really seemed to take the suggestion personally. I heard all of the standard lines from coworkers, agents, and friends, "If you don't buy now, you'll never be able to afford a house becasue the prices will continue to skyrocket," "All of the baby boomers are retiring to the coast, the local market will keep booming and you're going to miss out," "Interest rates are still at historic lows but they're going up, you'd better buy now."

Well, our house finally sold in July. As a person completely relieved to have unloaded a house in a cooling market, I'm even more wary of buying now. The last thing I want to do is sink all of our savings into a house that may be difficult to sell or, even worse, lose value in the next few years. We have a lease through March and I'm perfectly comfortable sitting on the sidelines at least until then. Our proceeds are in a money market account earning interest, waiting for an opportunity to snatch up a "bargain."

I'm not rooting for a crash in prices. That's not good for anyone. I do plan to buy eventually. I'm just glad that the immutable laws of supply and demand have given some of us buyers a chance to catch up to the affordability curve.

Again, thank you for your website. It puts all of the data in one place. I hope more people open their eyes and pay attention.

Thanks,
RW

Brad:

After reading the apology by Atlantic Appraisals in today’s business section, I had to go back and re-read the original articles. I guessed that the “controversy” would be about the local housing market. When I read the articles a few days ago, I thought “now there is somebody who understands the issue” It was refreshing after reading all the mindless drivel from local bankers and real estate agents that the housing market would keep going up forever. Sounds like the same hype with the stock market in 1999.You hit the issue right on target. The run away, out of control mortgage industry is a large part of the problem, and I guess the appraisal industry are accomplices.

Keep up the good work.
Al

Thanks for your report, Brad.

I'm sure I'm not alone in appreciating all the work you must put into your report. I read it with great interest.

JM