Well, we are different in that for the last year the local real estate market has gone against the trends you read about happening on the national stage. It is true that our inventory levels have been decreasing and that our demand has been increasing, but our prices are not increasing. In fact, single family home pricing declined another 2.6% in 2012 and condo pricing went down 3%. These declines do represent a more gradual decline than past years and the outlook for THIS market is stable pricing as we go through 2013 and begin 2014. In the national market, the demand has been driven by investor buyers scooping up properties priced at crazy low amounts and using historically low interest rates to finance them. As the quality properties are sold and pricing in those markets increases we will see sales volume soften and their temporary appreciation stall. Fortunately, in the Myrtle Beach market, we are seeing Buyer's that plan on using the property as second homes or primary residence drive the demand and while this may not drive prices higher, it will enable us to have sustained growth in both sales volume and pricing over the next few years.
Right now, the inventory levels are rising daily with more new properties on the market than the ones that are selling, withdrawing, or expiring from the market. This continued daily surplus is what will cause our pricing to become stable and not rise over the next 12 - 15 months.
Any prospect of the average pricing going up will be driven by lower foreclosures coming to market and lenders requiring higher retail pricing on short sales.
We will continue to monitor the market for you and keep you informed of trends here while helping you to interpret the national news regarding real estate.
Have an awesome day!
