Hilton Head Real Estate YTD Market Trends

I am not a firm believer in lumping all sales into a single category and coming up with an average price of homes or the average price of sold homes. The only thing it does do is spot trends in a market.

• The number of NEW LISTINGS coming on the market a month hit a peak in April 2008 with 187 new homes being listed, and has been trending down since.
• The number of homes going under contract or PENDING peaked in February 2008, and October was the worst month almost 75% down from Februbary.
• The number of CLOSED home sales has been steady, but does not set a trend. It does create the market price. A market price cannot be established based on the broad based average of all sales. That is why you should hire a professional Realtor to help you establish what the value of your home is.
• TOTAL SALES VOLUME for the year is just over $324 million.
• Some other interesting trend in our market that can be extrapolated from the generic blend of all homes sales on the island. The AVG DOM (Days on Market) for the year is 178.
• The average percentage of SALE PRICE TO LIST PRICE is 92.45%.

In summary our market has slowed down in the last two months. On the eve of the Presidential election I sure hope that people will feel good about getting the election over. Some of us will not like the results and others will. No matter what you politics are, life will go on. It has been my experience that elections tend to slow the economy down and buyers wanting to wait until the results are in.

The banks will start to lend over the next six months and our real estate prices are below the 2004 levels. It is my opinion if you are interested in owning a second home or investment property we have good deals currently, and as the credit pendulum starts to balance mortgages will be available.

Please refer to the chart above for individual monthly activity, and if you would like more specific information regarding a specific community on the island please contact me.

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Property of Charlie B Fraser 2008 All Rights Reserved

Statistical information obtained from Hilton Head island MLS