Below is a study of the tri-county area and comparison of the Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties. In 2008 Charleston County was the largest county with 51% of the 8.691 units sold and 65% of the $2,550,989,048 sales volume. Berkeley County leads the tri-county area with highest percent growth in unit and volume dollar sales. Dorchester County is slightly smaller the Berkeley county in actual units and volume sales but has a higher percent growth than Charleston County. Dorchester County offers buyers the lowest average home prices in the tri-county area.
Figure 1: Charleston Tri-County Area Map
Figure 2: Charleston Tri-County Home Sales
Figure 3: Charleston Tri-County Volume Sales
Figure 4: Charleston Tri-County Average List Price
The decline in unit and volume sales did not hinder the average list price rise in 2007 to a high of $310,671 for the tri-county area. In 2008 the average list price fell only -2% to $307,623. In Charleston County the average list price increased by 1.2% to $397,773. Berkeley and Dorchester counties average list price dropped -3.4% and -6.8% respectively. In general, the Charleston County sellers were not willing to reduce their list price even though unit sales had a drastic decrease.
Figure 5: Charleston Tri-County Average Sold Price
The tri-county average sold price only declined by -2.2% between 2007 and 2008. Charleston County price remained constant at $375,904 down only -0.3%. The average prices in the tri-county area offers buyers a wide range of home choices. Compared to other areas in the USA, the Charleston area was one of America's 25 strongest housing markets listed in Forbes.
Figure 6: Charleston Tri-County Median Sold Price
The tri-county median sold price grew from $122,900 (1998) to $209,081 in 2007. There was a decrease in the tri-county to $201,100 (-3.9%) in 2008. Charleston County’s median price grew from $247,000 to $252,000 between 2007 and 2008. Berkeley and Dorchester declined in 2008 -5% and -7.3% respectively after solid growth since 1998
Figure 7: Charleston Tri-County Price/ Sq Ft
The tri-county area had an average of $152/$ Sq ft in 2008. Dorchester County had the lowest price per Sq Ft at $104 followed by Berkeley County at $112 and Charleston County at $194. (Charleston County higher cost in 2005 is probably attributed to the luxury condominium market.)
Figure 8: Charleston Tri-County % Sold of List Price
In 2008 the average sold price was 95.4% of the list price. (It should be noted that there have been changes by the MLS in the way sold % / list price is calculated. 2008incorporates the reporting changes).
Figure 9: Charleston Tri-County Average DOM
The average days on market for properties sold in 2008 were 102 days. Berkeley County homes sold in 86 days on average. Dorchester County was next with an average of 90 DOM and then Charleston County homes with an average of 116 DOM.
Figure 10: Charleston Tri-County Current Unit Inventory
Charleston County accounts for 6,830 (64%) of the tri-county 10,672 units inventory in 2008. Dorchester and Berkeley account for 1,829 and 2,013 units respectively.
Figure 11: Charleston Tri-County Months Inventory
In 2008 the average months inventory was 14.7 month. Charleston had an 18.5 month supply in 2008. Dorchester had only 11.3 and Berkeley had 10.4 months inventory correspondingly. Charleston County had a tremendous increase in months inventory between 2005 and 2008.
In the next posting I will look at the percentage growth of the counties in the Charleston tri-county area.
