Life & Order: How's the Market?

Prepared. Aware. Ready.

LO JeffHall0220LO JeffHall0220 2February 2020 Issue
By Jeff Hall

The current trends in the Lowcountry real estate market are remarkable, definitely a wave you want to ride if you have any thoughts of buying, selling, upsizing, or downsizing. As we look at 2020, according to the Annual Report on the Hilton Head Housing Market released by the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors, “Continued low mortgage rates and a healthy economy is giving a great start to housing.” If you have driven around the Lowcountry, it is easy to see new construction—both commercial and single family homes—sprouting up everywhere. This growth is expected to help loosen up the inventory available for purchase. A healthy market will often tighten up the number of homes for sale, which also can lead to a shorter time span between listing and selling. In other words, you’re in luck if you’re buying or selling!

Now, let’s get specific with a few interesting 
market facts that you need to know:

Sales: Pending Sales increased 8.7 percent, finishing 2019 at 5,641. Closed sales were up 5.6 percent to end the year at 5,463.

Listings: Comparing 2019 to the prior year, the number of homes available for sale was lower by 12.1 percent. There were 2,040 active listings at the end of 2019. New listings increased by 0.6 percent to finish the year at 7,114.

Prices: Home prices were up compared to last year. The overall median sales price increased 3.4 percent to $325,000 for the year. Detached home prices were up 2.5 percent compared to last year, and attached home prices were up 4.2 percent.

List Price Received: Sellers received, on average, 96.8 percent of their list price at sale, a year-over-year improvement of 0.2 percent.

For many of us, our home is our biggest investment, and a vacation home is the American dream. When it’s time to sell, a REALTOR® understands you want to get the value you deserve and knows how to make it happen. The best way to achieve this is listing your home with an experienced agent. Here are five benefits to selling with a REALTOR®:

> Sell with a custom marketing plan
> Get your home listed and talked about everywhere,
not just in the local paper and on your street.
> Attract buyers via the Internet.
> Have all the paperwork professionally taken care of for you.
> Negotiate with the help of a real estate professional
who understands the market.

Not only is engaging an experienced agent in selling important, but buying the right home can be equally as difficult. However, a REALTOR® can bring comfort, enjoyment and many time-saving factors to the search. Working with an experienced REALTOR® brings benefits to the home-buying process due to their knowledge of the market, knowledge of the history of many homes, the intricacies of various neighborhoods, not to mention full access to all the gated communities. To sum it up, here are five benefits to buying your next house with a REALTOR®:

> Get access to all the listings.
> Know all the facts on properties you’re interested in.
> Negotiate with the help of a real estate professional.
> Finance your home faster.
> Make a solid investment that pays off down the road.

Working with a dedicated agent on your next home purchase will save you time and add professional assurance to every step of the process. With the guarantee of a solid investment, the decision could also make you more wealthy when it’s time to sell. Isn’t that worth calling a REALTOR® today?

A Hilton Head Island resident since 1974, Jeff Hall has been professionally selling and listing real estate for more than 30 years in the Lowcountry.
Source: Annual Report on the Hilton Head Housing Market released by the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors

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