Today I wanted to give you a quick market update for Charleston as well as a few great events that are going on around Charleston.
A few recent events just occurred here in Charleston, including the James Beard Awards. Rodney Scott of Rodney Scott BBQ actually won Best Chef in the Southeast. I live right down the street from his restaurant and it’s fantastic.
Additionally, FIG won the award for the best wine program in the country and The Charleston School of Business won an award for their MBA program. They were voted the top MBA program for post-graduates in the country as it related to post-graduation job placement.
As far as some other things that are coming up, there is the 13th Annual Sweetgrass Festival, 2nd Sunday on King is back in town, and the Charleston Rum Fest and Charleston Beer Mile are also coming up soon. You can learn more about these and all the other events going on in the area by checking out this document.
As far as real estate goes in the Charleston market, we are up 7.2% in terms of home value in the last year. The last two years, we averaged around a 4% increase, so this is a big jump. We’ve actually seen the same number of home sales this year as last, so the increasing prices are a result of low inventory.
There are still a lot of buyers out there and a lot fewer homes for sale, and as you can see, this is forcing prices up. That’s not going to be sustainable in the long run, but does it mean we are in a housing bubble? Not in my opinion. I think we’ll continue to see great appreciation for at least two more years. After that, I don’t think we’ll see a dip. The research I’ve done has shown that we’ve only seen a massive decrease in home values since 1991 during the 2008 market crash. When markets shift normally, they tend to just flatten out for a few years as opposed to crashing and falling.
Real estate is still a great investment in our market and it’s a great time to buy or sell a home right now. Our team is seeing record-breaking sales numbers and homebuyers are still going to be able to take advantage of the great appreciation we’ll see in the next few years. If you have any questions about buying or selling a home in Charleston or about anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
