Home sales a mixed bag in February

Myrtle Beach Online

March 20, 2008

The Grand Strand is still seeing year-over-year declines in home sales, but the drop isn't the worst in South Carolina anymore, a February report released Thursday shows.

Sales of houses and condos declined 19.4 percent from 558 in February 2007 to 450 last month, about on par with the 18.8 percent decline in sales across the state, according to the report from the S.C. Association of Realtors.

Sumter and Clarendon counties saw the steepest declines with 46.3 percent fewer sales. Beaufort, on the other hand, was the only area in the state with an increase, with 3.2 percent more sales.

Brunswick County, N.C., also saw an increase in sales last month, another report released Thursday shows.

Last year, the Grand Strand had the state's largest drop with 29.2 percent fewer sales than in 2006, when the real estate market was hot and sales and prices were skyrocketing.

Though sales this year have been fewer than last year, they're picking up. One hundred and four more homes were sold in February than in January.

Lower prices are one reason for the uptick, Realtors said.

'What I've been able to sell, we had to reduce drastically to get it to sell,' said Dale Johnson, owner of Palmetto Real Estate Partners in Myrtle Beach.

He recently sold a condo initially priced at $235,000 for $195,000, he said.

The glut of homes on the market means many sellers are lowering prices to lure buyers, Johnson said.

'There's too much product for too little buyers,' he said.

The median price for homes sold last month was $174,000, down from $196,000 in February 2007. The median price is where half sell for more and half sell for less.

Median prices across the state were about $147,000, with Hilton Head Island topping the list at $289,000 and Cherokee County at the bottom with $86,000.

The number of days homes spent on the market went up to 207 last month, up from from 197 in February 2007 and higher than the state average of 147.

Activity is expected to increase in the summer months.

'I still think our advantage is the ocean and the fact that we've got Market Common and the Hard Rock' Park, both of which are slated to open next month, said Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors market analyst Tom Maeser. 'We've got a lot of neat things going on when it's supposed to be a bad market. As we get more visitors, we get more real estate sales typically.'

A report from the N.C. Association of Realtors shows sales were up last month in Brunswick County, where sales increased from 82 in February 2007 to 116 last month.

Average prices there were down 4 percent to $288,484, compared with the state average of $206,964.

ONLINE | See the breakdown of sales throughout both Carolinas at MyrtleBeachOnline.com.

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