Proof the Real Estate Market is Local (er…Hyperlocal) – Longborough Screams into 2011

longborough-charleston-sc-real-estate

In a recent post, I wrote of the increase in sales in 2010 overall in Charleston, and then drilled down to a few ‘hot’ areas – Wagener Terrace, South of Broad, even Folly Beach – which showed increases well above the Charleston average.  Now let’s drill down a little bit further into a neighborhood which was dead (in terms of sales) for years, and is now scorching hot – proof that the real estate market is not only local, but hyperlocal.

The Longborough neighborhood on the Charleston Peninsula in the middle of Wagener Terrace was built in 2003-2008 along the Ashley River on 27 acres of land reclaimed from public housing.  There are 82 homesites and the homes here were created in the neotraditional style – close to the street, with porches and traditional architecture.  Let’s look at the stats… Remember, ‘months inventory’ means the number of homes available divided by the number sold.  6 months inventory is considered healthy.

Year

Months Inventory

Home Sales

2007

36

3

2008

180

1

2009

56

3

2010*

15

9

Jan 2011**

3

2

In 2008, there were 180 months, or 15 years of inventory as the yearly average.  That means at the sales pace of that time, it would have taken 15 years to sell all the homes.  2009 showed a slight improvement and then in 2010 sales increased by 300% and inventory was down to 15 months.  But if you break that down by the months, you’ll see the true story.  There were 9 total sales in 2010 – only 2 in the first half, but then there were 7 in the second half.  And this month, there have already been 2 sales, and another 3 are under contract.  There are currently 6 available.  So what does that mean?  That there are only 3 months of inventory in Longborough right now.  Scorching hot!!  I don’t know what happened to help cause this drastic change but I would speculate that:

  1. Sellers became more realistic with their asking prices.
  2. Two of these were bank-owned.
  3. There has been increase in desire to have urban proximity and walkable neighborhoods (this one is less than 2 miles to King St shopping and restaurants)

So what do you think?   Is this proof that the real estate market is not only local, but hyperlocal?   (The answer is yes 🙂 )  Thus, my advice is to take the national and even regional numbers with a grain of salt when evaluating the state of the market.  Pick a neighborhood or two or three and go deep to determine if they are in fact, hot or not.

Houses currently for sale in Longborough



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