Greetings from the Grand Strand!
This month's Real Estate News includes the local market reports for both December and January (See Grand Strand Market Reports link below).
The Grand Strand Market Reports
, compiled by SiteTech Systems and published by our local Board of Realtors,
contain numerous graphs and lots of detailed info but let's just focus on the January summary page
(It's the first page if you want to cross-reference as you read this). The various metrics for single-family residences and residential lots were a mixed bag, some up, some down... On the other hand,
the condos stats were all positive.
"Condo sales activity and the median sales price increased 15.8% and 11.6% respectively compared to January 2016. Condo inventory continued to tighten as inventory is down as compared to prior year levels: down 5.2% compared to January 2016. The average sold to list ratio for condo sales in January was 93%, up 100 basis points compared to the same month in 2016. Condo inventory continues to fall as year-over-year inventory has fallen for 5 consecutive years."
These stats represent all condos and townhouses on the entire Grand Strand. Most of the statistics I have compiled and published in my newsletters have included only oceanfront condos,which behave similarly to resort condos in general
(as opposed to condos and townhouses designed to be primary residences).
The numbers for oceanfront condos were not as clear-cut as the numbers for all condos.
Condos - Oceanfront Buildings (per MLS), January
|
|
# Sales
|
Median Price
|
Average Price
|
|
2016
|
70
|
$177,125
|
$214,542
|
|
2017
|
81
|
$156,000
|
$211,189
|
|
Change
|
+ 15.7%
|
- 11.9%
|
- 1.6%
|
The activity level change (number of sales) was similar to that for all condos (+15.7% vs +15.8% for all condos) but the median price was actually down (- 11.9% vs +11.6% for all condos).Note that I included the average prices. These were not included in the published market report.
Incidentally,
I think it's useful to look at both average and median prices to get a better picture of market performance.
For example,
a few very high-priced sales can result in an inflated average value and
a large number of sales in low-priced buildings can produce a median which masks increasing prices in high-end buildings.
I suspect both of these situations apply in this case because
even though the oceanfront median price was down sharply, the average price barely changed (only down 1.6%), indicating that there must have been quite a few high sales prices to create such a disparity between the median and the average
. This also goes hand-in-hand with my own personal experience which leads me to believe that
a handful of developments are appreciating substantially faster than the majority of the market.
Here is one other statistical observation.
Below is the same graph which was included in last month's newsletter which shows monthly oceanfront condo sales per contract date. This time, November and December sales figures are included for 2016.
If you would like to print a copy of the graph, please click the link below:
Last month I mentioned that the October sales were way below normal, probably due to the "election effect" which caused people to "freeze" until after the election was over. Sure enough, November and December contract volumes returned to normal seasonal ranges - maybe even a little higher than usual
(possibly a rebound from pent-up demand which could account for the increase in the number of closed sales in January).
Just to reiterate a message from last month's newsletter and
as you can see from the graph,we are now entering the busiest sales period of the year, both for new listings and buyer activity. If you plan to buy or sell in the near future, there will be no better time.
Well that's enough fun statistics for this month! Next month, I'll give my readers a break from numbers and focus on some new developments and other opportunities. After that - back to the numbers with my annual comprehensive overview of 2016 oceanfront condo sales.
Please check out the market reports in their entireties as well as my Best Buys (some really good ones this month!)
Come see me at the beach!
This monthly newsletter feature shares press releases that caught my eye in the previous month.
