Q: What’s Set Our Market on Fire?

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Podcast with Blake Sloan

Our Myrtle Beach market remains red-hot as we begin 2021. As we begin 2021, it’s time to look back at the December numbers from our Myrtle Beach real estate market. It was an amazing month and an amazing year overall considering everything that happened. So many buyers have been moving here from out of state that it’s set our market on fire and caused an inventory crisis (more on that below). Let’s first look at the year-over-year stats for resale single-family homes. Sales rose 24.9% from 506 to 632, the median price rose 15.6% to $270,000, and the average sale price rose 23.6% to $341,509. This means a lot of extra equity in homeowners’ pockets. If you have a home, it’s probably worth more than you think it is—even more than what the online home valuations say. Annually, sales rose 12.2% to 6,707, and the average price rose 14.9% to $324,129. As I said, we’re in a full-blown inventory crisis. Nationally, inventory is as low as it’s ever been, and we’re even lower than the national average. Our supply of resale homes is right at two months, which is a 53.5% year-over-year decrease. As you can expect, this has put massive pressure on prices. What’s been driving this trend? Buyer traffic. Last month, the average number of showings per listing was up 83.9%. “Nationally, inventory is as low as it’s ever been, and we’re even lower than the national average.” Moving onto the condo market, sales rose 38.9% from 440 to 619, the median price rose 15% to $156,000, and the average sale price rose 11.3% to $189,345. Annually, condo sales rose 5.6% and the average price rose 9.2% to $178,131. During the last few months of the year, sales really took off due to inventory for single-family homes being so low. A lot of buyers opted to move into condos because there were more of them and they were more affordable. As you can imagine, buyer traffic for these properties rose 44% in December. Annual inventory, meanwhile, decreased 28.9% to 3.3 months. By far the scariest of these numbers is the 53.5% decrease in single-family home inventory. Since the 1st of the year, inventory has risen slightly, but it’s still well below the six-month mark needed for a balanced market. With inventory so low and interest rates creeping up a bit, we’re approaching an important juncture in our market, and now is the perfect time to sell. Due to the pandemic and other factors, many people are moving to the Myrtle Beach area seeing greater affordability and more freedom. On top of that, a lot of buyers who’ve been waiting for the holidays to be over to list will be entering the market. The point is, strike while the iron is hot. If you’d like to take advantage of our Myrtle Beach market right now, would like an instant home valuation, or have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Talk to you soon