Top Real Estate Markets in the Country: Charleston, SC

Earlier this year Forbes named Charleston, South Carolina the ninth strongest real estate market in the United States.  Houston, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; El Paso, Texas; Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Syracuse, New York; and McAllen, Texas were the cities listed above Charleston on this list.

When these findings came out, we (as Charleston Realtors) were pleased that Charleston was given such a good outlook.  However, we also wondered how Charleston would fare in the coming months.  Only now that we are halfway though the year, we are able to see that Charleston’s real estate market the past six months has held its own quite well compared to other cities around the country.

Prices for the general Charleston area are down a little more than 9 percent compared to this time last year.  It is a buyers market here, and sellers are willing to bend on their negotiating price when they would not have dreamed of it even a year ago.  In response, buyers seem to be coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the good buys.  So, again, there is certainly a strong buyers’ market here, but one of the main differences in comparing Charleston to other cities is that its market is not completely stagnant.  The demand from buyers has made our real estate market very active, so that it is not the one sided selling process that other cities are seeing where sellers just have to wait and wait and wait for showings and offers. 

In the past few months, we have even seen multiple offer situations come back to our market.  The prevalence of these is not was it was in 2005.  But, we are seeing more and more.  And, if a home is priced well, multiple offers are now not uncommon.  Just last week, we encountered a home with four offers – one was contingent, and the others were backups.  Needless to say our client did not make an offer on that one – we moved on to the next home to make an offer on unclaimed territory, so to speak. 

Multiple offers are a sign that Charleston’s real estate market is picking back up.  But, as far as Forbes’ estimate that the bottom of our market will be late 2009, most real estate professionals in our area are expecting early 2010.  But, that’s not such bad news.  After all, the market is certainly on the mend.  And, even if the demand from home buyers decreases (as it always does seasonally), most Realtors that we have talked to see Charleston’s market clearing up some of this excess inventory throughout the rest of the year.  

By the way, some of the worst real estate markets in the country on Forbes’ list were Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida; and Jacksonville, Florida.  Recovery for these cities is furthest out, with a projected bottom ranging from the last months of 2009 to late 2011.  Prices are expected to drop another 40 percent in these cities before that bottom is hit.