We are officially into the second quarter of 2024 in the Charleston housing market! Overall, we are up 1.3% in terms of transactions vs this time last year. But, we were up 7.5% at the end of February. As we said at the end of Feb, we didn’t expect that to last. A lot of those were sales for properties that went under contract in 2023. The contingents (houses under contract) in 2024 have not quite kept pace with 2023. This past week was the slowest week for this time of year since 2020. We can confidently say that 2024 will be slightly down in terms of transactions vs 2023, unless something major happens. A few significant areas (23,42,63,72) had some significant gains in transactions. Areas 12 and 73, were actually down vs the same 2023 period.
But median price continues to rise! Our median price is now at $420k. We are up 5% from this time last year. Some significant MLS areas were up 10% or more: 12,21,32,41,42. Areas 61 and 73 are 2 significant areas that actually slipped a little in price.
MOI (months of inventory) is now 2.3 months. 20 of the 32 MLS areas have less than four MOI. Only eight of the MLS areas have more than 100 active listings.
Things did not go well at the Fed meeting today. Inflation data came in hot this morning. Some of the Fed even mentioned having to raise rates again. The idea of lowering rates is gone for a while. Powell made an error by coming out in November and telling everyone that things were going to be fine and that he had managed the ever elusive soft landing. This gave people encouragement and spending was too strong over the holidays. And most importantly, the job market continues to be too strong to lower rates. “If people have jobs or a reasonable expectation that they can get one, they will spend money”. – Paul Volcker
