Posted By Gene Carter @ Jun 8th 2021 4:25pm In: Monthly Real Estate News


Grand Strand Real Estate News


May 2021


Volume 2021 Issue 5

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Dear Gene Carter Team,


Summary


Our sales market is still crazy busy. Available inventory is scarce in most oceanfront and resort condo complexes. Prices are heading up. 

Current news: Southwest Airlines has now started flights to and from Myrtle Beach. The Carolina Country Music Fest is back (https://carolinacountrymusicfest.com/). 

Owners in multiple resorts reported their highest April rental income totals ever.

Inventory for oceanfront and resort condos continues to drop precipitously after about 12 years of being exceptionally stable. As of May 24, there were only 418 active oceanfront condo listings on the entire Grand Strand and 290 active condo listings not on the oceanfront. See updated graph. The following numbers tell the full story of just how busy the market has been. 

There are currently 895 oceanfront condo listings but only 418 of them are active because 477 are under contract (pending). 

There are currently 1425 current listings that are not oceanfront but only 290 of them are active because 1135 are under contract (pending). 

Condos are only typically under contract for 60 days at most. This means that almost all of these new contracts have been written in the past two months.

This also illustrates another characteristic of the current market - it’s buyer driven. There are actually two ways inventory levels can drop. One way is for buying to continue at the same pace while fewer new listings enter the market. The other way is for the pace of buying to grow faster than the pace new properties are listed. 

Strangely, new listings and closed sales have moved almost in unison over the past 12 years - which is why inventory levels and prices have been very flat with little appreciation. (See graph below which shows new listings for oceanfront condos and closed sales from 2015 to 2020). The pace for new listings is running about the same so far in 2021.

To sum this all up, oceanfront condos are still being listed at about the same rate they have for a number of years This means the huge drop in inventory and accompanying appreciation is being created almost entirely by increased buyer demand rather than any contraction in the supply of listings. 

Just how low is the inventory? (See chart showing number of active listings in dozens of large resorts - many having no active listings at all)

So how much have prices gone up so far? According to MLS market stats, the average sale price for ALL condo/townhouses on the Grand Strand has gone up about 15% since the beginning of 2020. In high demand buildings with extremely low or no inventory, prices have increased the most, up to 20 %or 30%.

Remember that prices only go up when inventory drops to little or none. We will know a lot more about where the prices are going in the next several months after the current glut of pending sales closes. The appreciation rate will depend largely on two factors - and these can vary from building to building. One factor is whether or not the current extremely high buying demand continues at this pace. The other big factor is whether or not listings start appearing on the market at a faster pace. 

Buyers: 

There are still some bargains out there, particularly in the condotel buildings.

Myrtle Beach oceanfront and resort condo prices are still low compared to other resort areas around the country.

Wouldn’t you rather buy into a market where prices are going up than one where they are going down?

You should partner with a knowledgeable agent or team (like The Beach Pro Team) that can use expertise and technology to help you achieve your goals.

Sellers:

Now is the best time to sell, in almost any resort, in the past 12 years. Prices are moving up and reasonably priced listings are selling quickly.

The best time to sell is when you have little or no competition and strong buyer demand. If you own in any of the resorts in the charts below, now would be a super time to sell. 

Remember that conditions can change quickly. The current strong buyer demand could fade. Also, I fully expect more listings to come on the market in the next few months to take advantage of the current seller’s market. Take advantage of the situation now.

As a seller, you should partner with a knowledgeable agent or team (like the Beach Pro Team) to maximize your particular situation. 

By the way, our residential housing market is busy too. In fact, Teressa has helped several more buyers find homes over the past month. If you or someone you know is interested in purchasing a home in the area, please let me or Teressa know.

Check out all our usual Grand Strand Market Reports, Sales and Listing Updates, my Best Buys, and new Beach Pro Team reviews.




Greetings from The Grand Strand,

Our sales market is still crazy busy. Available inventory is scarce in most oceanfront and resort condo complexes. Prices are heading up. I’ll cover this in much more detail but first, here are a few local news updates. 

Southwest Airlines has now started flights to and from Myrtle Beach. The airline will offer nonstop flights to at least 10 destinations across the South and Central U.S. and connections to dozens more around the nation.

The Carolina Country Music Fest is back. Over 40 country music stars will be there for the event at the site of the old Pavilion in Myrtle Beach June 10-13. Headliners include Luke Combs, Darius Rucker, Eric church, and Jake Owen. https://carolinacountrymusicfest.com/


Festivals are back! My family and I attended the Blue Crab Festival a couple of weeks ago in Little River, just north of North Myrtle Beach and it was packed. 

This doesn’t really qualify as a news event but just about every owner I’ve talked to has reported exceptionally high rental income for the month of April, a complete turnaround from last April.

Okay, now on to the extraordinary market conditions. Last month I reported that inventory (active oceanfront listings) has been dropping precipitously since last October after about 12 years of being exceptionally stable. As of May 24, the date I pulled all the stats for this newsletter, there were only 418 active oceanfront condo listings on the entire Grand Strand and 290 active condo listings not on the oceanfront. Here’s last month’s graph updated with these even lower figures.


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I want to point out something about this graph. It was mis-labeled in last month’s newsletter as being “New Listings”. These numbers actually represent “Active Listings”. In fact, however, the number of current listings is much higher than these totals, but most of them are under contract so they are not “active” listings. Here are some incredible numbers.

There are currently 895 oceanfront condo listings but only 418 of them are active because 477 are under contract (pending). 

There are currently 1425 current listings that are not oceanfront but only 290 of them are active because 1135 are under contract (pending). 

These are staggering numbers, particularly for the off-beach condos. Keep in mind that condos are only typically under contract for 60 days at most. This means that almost all of these new contracts have been written in the past two months.

This also illustrates another characteristic of the current market - it’s buyer driven. This may seem like an obvious statement but there are actually two ways inventory levels can drop. One way is for buying to continue at the same pace while fewer new listings enter the market. The other way is for the pace of buying to grow faster than the pace new properties are listed. Of course, you can also have some combination of these two factors. I decided to check into this a little further and here’s what I found.

The graph below shows new listings for oceanfront condos and closed sales from 2015 to 2020. Keep in mind that the vast majority of the current contracts are not showing up as closed sales yet on this graph. 


As you can see, new listings and closed sales have moved almost in unison over the past five years. Actually, they’ve done this for about 10 or 12 years, which is why inventory levels and prices have been very flat with little appreciation. I also checked on the pace of new listings in 2021 and, through the first four months, it’s running about the same as it has for the past several years. 

To sum this all up, oceanfront condos are still being listed at about the same rate they have for a number of years This means the huge drop in inventory is being created almost entirely by increased buyer demand. 

When people are buying and listing at the same pace, inventory levels and prices can remain in the same range for long periods of time - the pattern we’ve seen for a dozen years - until now. The huge surge in pending contracts that I mentioned earlier has now created a low inventory situation which will lead to higher prices (as long as demand remains high and the pace of new listings doesn’t pick up dramatically - see explanation below). 

Just how low is the inventory? 

Take a look at the following chart showing the number of active listings in a number of popular developments in Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach. 



Please note that most of these are large developments with hundreds of condos. For example, Magnolia Pointe, with two listings, has over 800 condos.

So how much have prices gone up so far? According to MLS market stats, the average sale price for all condo/townhouses on the Grand Strand has gone up about 15% since the beginning of 2020. As might be expected, in high demand buildings with extremely low or no inventory, prices have increased the most, up to 20 %or 30% in a few cases. Appraisals are still holding back appreciation to some extent but many sellers in strong positions are simply holding their ground. On the other hand, I have seen some sellers push the market too far with their asking prices with no takers. There are also some resorts, notably a few of the condotels, where there are still lots of listings and prices have barely changed at all (although these are now selling more quickly too). Nevertheless, it’s a good time for any seller to possibly sell at the highest price of the past 12 years. 

Remember that prices only go up when inventory drops to little or none. Up until recently, there were a good many condos for sale in most buildings so prices have only increased substantially in the resorts which reached low inventory levels first. We will know a lot more about where the prices are going to go in the next several months after the current glut of pending sales closes. The appreciation rate will depend largely on two factors, and these can vary from building to building. One factor is whether or not the current extremely high buying demand continues at this pace. The possible variables responsible for this huge upswing could fill up three more newsletters so it’s difficult to predict how long this will last. The other big factor is whether or not listings start appearing on the market at a faster pace. Typically, as prices go up, more people decide to sell. In fact, I’ve had a number of inquiries about selling in the past week, all citing the higher prices and “seller’s market” as their primary reasons.

So what does this mean for buyers and sellers?

Buyers: 

There are still some bargains out there, particularly in the condotel buildings, which generally still have higher inventories. However, these are also selling quickly now and prices are expected to move up some in the near future.

Myrtle Beach oceanfront and resort condo prices are still low compared to other resort areas around the country. I feel like they have been tremendously undervalued for many years and they are still selling for far below rebuilding costs.

Wouldn’t you rather buy into a market where prices are going up than one where they are going down?

You should partner with a knowledgeable agent or team (like The Beach Pro Team) that can use expertise and technology to help you achieve your goals in this fast changing market. I heard an agent a few weeks ago call this “a pro’s market”. When strong listings are selling almost instantly, you absolutely need a pro to help you identify the best listing quickly and then get the deal done.

Sellers:

Now is the best time to sell, in almost any resort, in the past 12 years. Prices are moving up and reasonably priced listings are selling quickly.

The best time to sell is when you have little or no competition and strong buyer demand. For condos, this means a good time is when there are few other listings like yours in your building or similar buildings. If you own in any of the resorts in the charts above, now would be a super time to sell. 

Remember that conditions can change quickly. The wild swing in the past few months is a perfect example of that. The current strong buyer demand could fade because of higher interest rates, seasonality (spring is historically the busiest time of the year for buyers), unexpected economic or other factors (Who saw Covid coming?).... Also, I fully expect more listings to come on the market in the next few months to take advantage of the current seller’s market. In other words, take advantage of the situation now.

As a seller, you should partner with a knowledgeable agent or team (like the Beach Pro Team) to maximize your particular situation. Our marketing is second to none and we will do everything we can to obtain the highest price the market will bear. I’m currently being very aggressive and optimistic in my pricing. If you’re interested in selling, please contact me and we can go over your scenario.

By the way, our residential housing market is busy too. In fact, Teressa has helped several more buyers find homes over the past month. If you or someone you know is interested in purchasing a home in the area, please let me or Teressa know.

Well, that’s it for now. Check out all our usual Grand Strand Market Reports, Sales and Listing Updates, my Best Buys, and new Beach Pro Team reviews.

See you at the beach!

Beach Pro Reviews

Here are some new reviews published in Zillow. 


  • Gene and team were extremely helpful and professional throughout the entire sales process, starting with original listing and continuing through the showings and final sale. I would highly recommend Gene and his team. Rob. Carolinian Beach. Myrtle Beach.

  • Teressa is fantastic. Very personable and helpful. Works hard to take care of the details. She has quickly become a family friend and trusted real estate professional!! She knows Myrtle Beach region like the back of her hand! Don. Magnolia Pointe. Myrtle Beach

We have chosen to utilize Zillow's review platform. This is not an endorsement of Zillow (Please ignore the ridiculous "Zestimates") but we think an online third-party review service provides more credibility than simply printing reviews ourselves. At this time, we have over 100 reviews with more coming in each month. To see all of the reviews at any time, you can visit Zillow Beach Pro Team reviews. 

Grand Strand Market Report


Below is a link to a detailed report on the current state of our local real estate market complete with statistics for just about anything imaginable. Please keep in mind that these statistics cover a broad range of properties and that particular areas or developments may behave quite differently.  

As always please contact me if I can be of service in any way.

See link below to interpret terms used in this report.


Grand Strand Market Report - April 2021

Best Buys


The following current listings are exceptionally well-priced and represent great values. The spreadsheets are sorted by price. These are live links to listing details and they will change according to changes in the MLS (Pending, Sold, etc.). The listing details are in the same order as the spreadsheets. Please call me directly if you find something of interest to you.
  


OF/OV Homes Brochures:    Link to Listings 
OF/OV Homes Spreadsheet:   Link to Spreadsheet 
 
OF/OV Condo Brochures:    Link to Listings
OF/OV Condo Spreadsheet:   Link to Spreadsheet

Non-OF Condo Brochures:     Link to Listings 
Non-OF Condo Spreadsheet:  Link to Spreadsheet
If you are considering buying or listing any property on the Grand Strand, or if I can be of assistance in any other way, please contact me. Also, please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends or acquaintances and of course I will be happy to add them to my email list.

Finally, please let me know if you are going to be in the area and would like to get together.

See you at the beach!




Gene Carter
Beach Pro Team
Cell Phone:  843-455-4785

The material provided is for informational and educational purposes only and sometimes contains current or forward-looking statements on real estate market conditions, and should not be construed as legal, investment and/or real estate advice. Although the material is deemed to be accurate and reliable, we do not make any representations as to its accuracy or completeness and as a result, there is no guarantee it is without errors, and is not necessarily the opinion of RE/MAX Southern Shores or its agents.

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