February is here and this is traditionally our coldest month of the year in the Low Country. Sadly, the South Eastern Wildlife Expo has been cancelled due to Covid concerns. We have some nice events scheduled for February, but you better check before you go. The Stingrays Hockey team plays at the N Chas Coliseum on Feb 3,5,10,12, & 13. Here is your February calendar of events:
28: Last day to apply to grow hemp for the 2021 growing season
The Charleston housing market is breaking records for number of transactions and median sales price. Real estate all over the country did quite well during the pandemic due to the extremely low interest rates. In Charleston, we had about 21k transactions in 2020. That broke the previous record set in 2019 by 17.5%! The median sales price was up to $306k. That was up almost 9% over the previous record from 2019. December is traditionally a slow month for real estate because of the holidays. December 2020 was up 32% in number of transactions from the previous year. All of this is happening with record low inventory. From 2015 through 2019, you could find around 5k active listings on our MLS on any given day and this was extremely consistent. During 2020, we watched demand continually gain ground over new listings and our number of active listings dropped from steadily all year. We now currently have under 2,100 active listings and this is decreasing every week. The activity in early January has been the best we have ever seen and we believe this will continue until interest rates rise.
South Carolina ranks #2 in the country for inbound moves, according to United Van Lines. Around 55% of the country’s inbound moves were to the Southern region with the Carolinas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Tennessee topping the list. People are relocating for several reasons. Retirement led the pack at 38.5% with jobs second at 26.5%. Based on one-way moves, U-Haul determined Charleston to be the 17th fastest growing city in the country according to migration patterns. With the changes brought about by added remote working environments, Upwork has predicted that 14 million to 23 million U.S. households will relocate from large cities to less expensive housing markets. Do not forget the pets! They must be happy too. Rent.com found Charleston to be the #2 most pet-friendly cities among 50 cities they checked out! Tempest has been named “Best New Restaurant” by USA Today in their 10 Best Readers’ Choice 2020 competition. SC Ports announced a continuation of its upward trend of steady growth. After a record-breaking November, December followed with the same. Vehicles saw the biggest increase with a 29.2% jump.
This content is not the product of the National Association of REALTORS®, and may not reflect NAR's viewpoint or position on these topics and NAR does not verify the accuracy of the content.
