Year to date as of the end of April there have been 403 homes closed in the county, down from 429 last year. The YTD average price is about $130,000 – up over 6% versus last year’s $122,500. Home sales are down in most parts of the county, with only the TL Hanna High School district and the Westside High School district showing increases from last year. Most all price ranges were down, but interestingly the only price range showing an increase was the $200-300,000 range which was up 34% with 38 homes selling in that price range.

Waterfront homes on Hartwell Lake are also slowing after several quarters of increases. So far this year 49 homes have sold on the lake (in any county) which is just below last year’s 53 homes at this point in the year. Average prices have also slipped, falling from about $283,000 last year to just under $271,000.

The cheapest home closed so far this year sold for $1,218 while the most expensive was $1,100,000.

A positive note is that Pending Home Sales continue to climb and are near their highest point of the year. And if our business is any indication of the county market, May is going to be a great month!

Download our full Market Update Report here.

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Some quick facts:

• The average sales price last year was $133,755 which was up just over 1% from 2010
• Those homes that sold were on the market for about 170 days, which is more than the 151 days it took to sell a home in 2010
• The average home sold for about 87% of its original listing price, about the same as 2010
• At this sales rate, there is about a 13 month supply of homes for sale in Anderson County
• Hartwell Lake watefront home sales were up 15% and had an average sales price of $285,057
• 44% of the homes sold were for $100,000 or below
• 35% of the homes sold were either bank owned properties or short sales

Here’s a chart of home sales by month over the past 3 years:

Additionally, at least through the first 3 quarters of 2010, we were the 2nd highest selling RE/MAX team in all of South Carolina! The results for the 2010 totals won’t be announced until the RE/MAX Awards Gala next month, but we’re hoping to be in the top few for the year as well.

Thanks to all our buyers and sellers that worked with us during the year. While it hasn’t been easy, homes are still selling in the county and well-priced homes in great condition will continue to find a buyer (even if it takes a bit longer that we would like sometimes!)

For the year to date, homes sales are at 754 versus 846 last year, a decline of about 11% . The average sales price YTD is now about $132,000 which is within a few hundred dollars of last years prices, and the average Days On Market for the homes that did sell was 164 which is 19 more days than it took last year. Sales by price range continue to be clustered in the lower end, with 44% of homes sold priced at under $100,000 and a full 85% priced under $200,000.

One area that has seen improvement this year is homes on Hartwell Lake. Waterfront property sales are up nearly 20% this year (from 89 to 108) and the average price has risen as well to about $288,000.

Distressed properties are still a large portion of sales, with about 35% of the home sales so far this year being either bank-owned homes or short sales (mostly bank-owned). That is up from last year’s 25%, but is pretty much in line with national averages.

With the fallout from the national debt issues and the S&P downgrade still creating turmoil in the markets, it’s very hard to get a clear view of the future. Experts from RE/MAX International and the National Association of Realtors still tell us that interest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future – that’s the good news. Bad news is that the foreclosures will continue to be a large percentage of the market for at least the rest of this year and probably most of next year.

That being said, remember that 754 homes HAVE sold this year, and well priced homes in excellent condition will still sell. If you’d like more details, download our market update or give us a call at (864) 225-2503.

With no Home Buyer’s Tax Credit accelerating demand this year, home sales have fallen 9.2% from last year’s sales. During the first 6 months of 2011, there were 671 homes that closed in Anderson County versus 739 homes last year. Last year, as the June 30th deadline closed in, the months of April, May and June saw a nice bump in sales. But this year April, May and June were all down by double digits from last year so that even with earlier months showing gains, the year-to-date sales are down. It wasn’t totally unexpected, and it will be very interesting to see how July sales compare with last year’s since the tax credit affect was gone. Last July saw a big drop from June, but we don’t expect that this year.

Distressed properties (bank owned homes and those in a short sale situation) still continue to weigh heavily on the market, comprising about 37% of the home sold so far this year. Considering they are only about 10% of the total homes on the market right now, it’s obvious that a lot of buyers and investors are being enticed by this homes. However, the average sales price has actually risen a bit from last year – it’s now about $131,000 versus about $130,000 this time last year.

Broken down by price range, about 44% of home sales were below $100,000 with another 39% between $100,000 and $200,000. While there was not too much activity in the high end (only 8 homes $500,000 or over have sold this year) homes on Hartwell Lake have been staging a bit of a comeback. There were 92 waterfront home sales this year versus 75 last year, and the average price has increased over 10% to just under $300,000.

The average home that sold took 154 days this year and sold for 88% of the original asking price – both just slightly worse than last year.

Looking forward to the second half of the year, we still feel that while distressed homes will continue to play a large role in the market, we anticipate home sales to rise slightly from last year’s post tax credit levels.

And to all home sellers, price and condition continue to be paramount as home buyers have plenty of options to choose from and will look for any reason to rule your home out.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call our team at (864) 225-2503. If you want to see all the numbers, download our June 2011 Market Update Report.

And it’s a great testimony to the knowledge and professionalism of our local RE/MAX agents that despite having no official office during this year, the 13 RE/MAX affiliated agents have sold just as much real estate in Anderson County from January to May as the 81 agents with Keller-Williams Upstate or the 30 agents with AgentOwned!

It wasn’t even close.

RE/MAX led all national franchises in total transaction sides (754,333) and transaction sides per agent (13.1).That per-agent productivity easily surpassed Coldwell Banker (7.1 sides per agent) and ERA (6.3), Prudential (6.2), and more than doubled Century 21 (5.4), Keller Williams (5.1), Sotheby’s (3.9) and Better Homes and Gardens (3.5).

This is the 13th consecutive year that RE/MAX agents in the U.S. have led the industry in production.

That’s a big part of the reason that we stay as proud RE/MAX agents in Anderson! Congratulations to all the RE/MAX agents, and we look forward to even more success in helping our clients meet their real estate goals in 2011.

Since January was not quite as good, the Year-To-Date numbers don’t look as strong, with a total of 165 homes sold for an average price of $122,000. Last year at this time we had closed 157 homes, but at an average price of $129,000.

A few other highlights from this month’s Market Update:

• While the vast majority of the sales were under $200,000, the $300,000 to $400,000 price range did double from last year.
• Hartwell Lake waterfront homes appear to have firmed up nicely, with sales up over 60% this year and prices also slightly up. Not only that, but the average percentage of original price jumped from 78% to 90%. That’s pretty strong and even higher that the county as a whole. We’ve seen some great deals on the lake, and this may mean they’ll start being fewer.
• More homes sold in the TL Hanna school district than any other, which also had the second highest average sales price just behind Wren High School area.
• The total number of homes for sale in the County has dropped about 5%, and as of this morning there were 1,663 homes for sale.
• The absorption rate dropped to 20 months of supply from last year’s 22 months, but we still have a long way to go to get to the historically balanced range which is between 6 and 9 months of supply.
• Of the 165 homes that have sold, 65 (about 40%) of them were bank owned homes.

Overall, the market continues to slowly rebound. January was even with last year, February was up 11% and from what we can tell from our team’s activity March will be a very strong month. While we never know what the future will bring, we continue to be optimistic.

As always, please feel free to call or email with any questions you may have.

Here’s a few photos we took. Come by any time and take a look!