Get your sunscreen out. June is here and school is out and summer is upon us! Everyone will be heading to the beaches and parks, but first make sure to take in at least 5 Spoleto events. Spoleto Festival USA is one of the greatest art festivals in the world. It started on May 24 and continues to June 10 with multiple fantastic event opportunities everyday. Of course, Charleston has some of the best restaurants and breweries around for you to enjoy the rest of your day. With so many possible events through Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto, the regular calendar of events is a little on the light side.
Here’s your June calendar of events:
2: 13th Annual Sweetgrass Cultural Festival, Mt P Waterfront Park
2,3: Wahini Surf Contest, Folly Beach Washout
7: Grass in the Hall, Chas Music Hall
10: Second Sunday, King Street
13: The Illusionists, N Chas PAC
19: Rushmore, Chas Music Hall
21-23: Cariefest
22: Paula Poundstone, Chas Music Hall
23: Charleston Rumfest, Memminger
23: SC Beer Mile, N Chas Coliseum
25: Little Chef/Big Chef, Halls Events
Charleston is booming on so many fronts including food, breweries, colleges, real estate, and business. James Beard Awards chose Rodney Scott of Rodney Scott’s BBQ as Best Chef in the Southeast. FIG captured the Best Wine Program in the US. The Masters program at the College of Charleston School of Business was named by US News and World Report as the Best MBA program for post-graduation job placement. Travel+Leisure also published another timely feature on the 10 Best Seafood Restaurants in Charleston. Making the list were Hank’s, Fleet landing, FIG, 167 Raw, Amen Street, The Ordinary, Roadside Seafood, Leon’s Oyster Shop, Nana’s Seafood and Soul, and Nico Oysters and Seafood. If you’re wondering if the local breweries are keeping pace with the accolades in the food aisle, we checked the results from the 2018 LA International Beer Competition. Revelry took home a whopping 6 medals evenly split between gold and silver! Commonhouse Aleworks and River Rat Brewery also medaled. Something tells us this all contributes to the 6.2% rise in passengers arriving at the airport in February.
On the real estate front, the number of transactions year to date is almost the exact same as last year. However, the median sales price is up 7.2% over the same period to an all time high of $265k. That’s a pretty heady number. The last couple of years have seen more modest gains of around 4%. Many people are asking if this is the warning of another bubble. But remember, real estate doesn’t ever really go down. Well it did once, in 2008. But that was an anomaly. There was a good reason for that and it was nationwide. Don’t expect prices to go down again. Economies go into recession and this causes real estate to go flat. Sometimes you may see your real estate value stay constant for many consecutive years. But it never really goes down. Our analysis back to 1991 shows that current values in Charleston are where they should be on the long term trend line. We probably cannot sustain 7% increases for very long, but that does not mean there’s a bubble. Note that Johns Island sales are up 54.2% YTD in terms of number of transactions. And Daniel Island is up 28% YTD in terms of number of transactions. Daniel Island median sales price is also up over 20% YTD over the same period from 2017.
