Sellers: You must strike while the iron is hot, and that time is now.
According to the September year-over-year numbers, our Myrtle Beach real estate market is setting records left and right.
Single-family resale home sales rose 31.6% from 500 to 685. The median price for single-family resale homes jumped 12% to $270,000, while the average sale price spiked 17% to $347,669. The most shocking number, though, is the inventory level—there are 50% fewer homes on the market now than there were at this time last year. Officially, we’re at 2.6 months of inventory, which is the lowest I’ve seen since we started tracking the MLS numbers.
If you remember, anything below six months of inventory constitutes a seller’s market, and a healthy market generally has four to six months of inventory. Our 2.6 months of inventory puts us in a massive seller’s market, and we’re actually in what we call an ‘inventory crisis.’ We have way more buyers entering the market than homes available for sale. Part of this is due to the increase in sales, but COVID-19 has also played a hand in this development. Thankfully, with the safety protocols we’ve implemented, my team and I have had zero issues helping sellers sell.
If there’s a number that can really help us forecast what will happen moving forward, it’s showings per listing, which rose 63% year over year. In other words, listings are getting about 63% more visitors than they did last year.
As you know, we always try to gauge what’s happening in real time on my weekly WRNN radio show by tracking how many properties go under contract on a weekly basis. In the week prior to the recording of this video, there were 801 of these properties. During the week I recorded this video, that number dropped to 674.
“
We have way more buyers entering the market than homes available for sale.
”
If you’re thinking of selling, you want to strike while the iron is hot. I don’t know what’s going to happen after the election, or how the COVID-19 pandemic will play out, or where interest rates will be next year. Interest rates, in particular, are what’s driving our market. As of the recording of this video, they were hovering around 3.02%. Before that, they were sitting at 2.98%.
Right now, we’re seeing a perfect storm for our market. A surplus of buyers from the Northeast are resettling here in Myrtle Beach, primarily because they’re frustrated with government. With all the restrictions in place, they’re taking an early retirement, and we’ve been selling a lot of properties virtually to these buyers.
What about the condo market? Condo sales were huge last month, rising 20% from 449 to 539 sales. The median price, meanwhile rose 14.8% to $155,000, and the average sale price rose 22% to $197,469. The condo market is seeing the same challenge as the resale market in terms of supply—inventory dropped 16.2% to just 4.2 months. The number of showings per listing rose 38.9%. Again, this means a tremendous number of buyers are looking for condos, and the biggest obstacle is simply finding properties for them. We have 58,000+ buyers on our website, and the reality is that we don’t have that many homes for sale.
If you’ve been thinking about selling or had your home on the market in the past but failed to sell, give me a call or send an email so I can help you take advantage of this opportunity. Many sellers are selling for way more money than they thought they could, and they have far more equity in their homes than previously thought. The market is moving quickly, and you need an agent on your side who sells a lot of properties. The average agent sells just four homes per year, and that’s not going to cut it in this fast-paced market.
As always, if you have any other real estate needs, feel free to reach out to me as well. I look forward to speaking with you soon!
I have the very latest numbers for the Myrtle Beach real estate market, and they’re some of the craziest numbers I’ve ever seen.
Last month, sales were up 5.7% from this time last year. They’re down slightly from July, but that is mostly due to low inventory. In the same time frame, prices are up 14.9% from July to August. The average price in the Grand Strand is $335,881. Many sellers have a lot of equity in their homes and are realizing that when they sell. If you’re curious about what your home is worth, we’d be happy to take a look for you.
Inventory is the real story here.It’s down 45.3% from last year at this time, and it’s causing the big increase in prices. This is the lowest I've seen inventory levels since we’ve had this technology to track it—October 2006. All-time low interest rates are causing massive demand, and more and more transplants from larger cities are moving to the area for more freedom and a lower cost of living.
Home showings are an important leading indicator of the market. They’re up 22% in the last month. This leads us to believe that home sales are going to see an uptick over the next few months, provided more are listed. The truth is that we are in an inventory crisis. The active buyers far outnumber the active homes for sale, but we’re hoping to match buyers and sellers together through our systems. If you or someone you know is looking to sell their home, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
“
Inventory is down nearly 50% from last year.
”
New construction homes last month were up 21%, while prices were up 10.7%. Inventory for these homes is down to just four months, and builders are building as fast as they can. As for condos, sales were up 2.3% last month, while prices were up 8.3%. The supply for condos is also down to a little over four months, and they’re also in a seller’s market.
As we progressed through August, my team and I were keeping an eye on real-time data each day that shows where the market is and where it’s headed. Things started to pick back up in the last seven days of August. 869 properties went under contract, and prices spiked. We don’t know how long these conditions will last, but we do know that you can take advantage of them right now.
If you have questions for me about buying, selling, or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email.
Our Myrtle Beach real estate market is crazy right now. Inventory is as low as it’s been in 13 years, prices are through the roof, and sales are skyrocketing too.
What’s behind all this chaos? First of all, interest rates are historically low. Right now, they’re hovering around 2.81%, and I’ve seen people lock in rates as low as 2%. Second, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis is causing a massive influx of buyers to leave metropolitan areas up north and buy primary and secondary homes in our area. In general, we’ve seen tremendous movement with mid- and high-end properties, and we’re selling homes within hours of them being listed.
What do the year-over-year numbers from last July in particular tell us? Single-family home sales rose 22.9% from 564 to 693, which is a huge jump, and a great recovery. We knew this would happen based on the surplus of pending deals we saw in prior months, and we should continue to see high sales numbers next month.
What’s especially crazy, though, is that inventory dropped 38.9% and now stands at 3.3 months. When you combine these two stats, it means we’re in an extreme seller’s market. Sellers are dictating contract terms and getting way more money for their homes than they ever thought they could.
“
The market needs homes to sell, so if you’re thinking about selling, reach out to me today.
”
Moving on, the median sale price for single-family homes rose 22.5% to $339,497, and the number of showings rose 31.9%. In the week preceding the recording of this video, we saw 741 properties go under contract for $196 million.
As far as condos go, sales rose 18.4% from 526 to 623. For single-family homes, inventory dropped 5.9% to 4.8 months. The median sales prices rose 4.1% to $172,547. This means the condo market is a seller’s market too, and condo sellers are making way more money than they thought they could as well.
The bottom line is, we’re seeing a perfect storm for sellers. Aside from all the discomfort caused by COVID-19, northern buyers are moving here in droves looking to escape a higher cost of living and get a bargain for their home purchase. The market needs homes to sell, so if you’re thinking about selling, reach out to me today.
I just sold a home for a client whose listing originally expired with another agent at a price of $170,000, and we managed to get $199,000 for it. Don’t make the mistake of hiring an inexperienced agent and leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
As always, if you have any other questions about our Myrtle Beach market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me as well. I’d love to speak with you.
