The yearly numbers are in for 2018 for the Lake Wylie/Steele Creek Real Estate Market. The Carolina Realtors Association compiles data from the Carolina Multiple Listing Services to get a portrait of the local real estate market and provide us with data to analyze for our readers interested in Real Estate. This is what they show.
The Charlotte Region:
When you start digging into the numbers, for the entire Charlotte region sales were down 14% from December of 2017. Prices were up slightly, with the average sales price up 1.1% to $282,894. Inventory was down yet again from a 2.3 month supply to a 2.2 month supply, a decline of 550 homes. This leaves sellers again in the best position in real estate deals with a balanced market considered to be a 4-6 month supply of inventory. Pending sales were dead even and new listings were down 4.4% from this time last year.
In the Steele Creek area zip codes 28278 and 28273 the Market is extremely tight,
1325 Homes were sold compared to around 2000 in 2017. Currently there were only 15 Homes priced under $300,000 in the entire 28273 area, most sell within 10 days of entering the market and the overwhelming majority of those were priced under $350,000.
York, Clover and Lake Wylie: Zip Codes 29710 and 29745
A similar pattern continues in the South Carolina Market, sales were down from 2017 from a high mark of 1300 to 1135 in 2018, the majority of those 848 were priced under $350,000. Current active inventory is 221 Homes.
When you look just at Lake Wylie, South Carolina non waterfront resale Homes the story is a little bit different. Closed sales were indeed down year over year 15.3% from 98 to 83. Due to the small sample size, the percentages can look extreme so please keep that in mind. Average price was up year over year to $409,539, an increase of 16.2%. Inventory was dead even from last year in terms of months of supply at 3.3, but remember about that extreme note from earlier, there were actually 26 more homes on the market.
This means that sellers are still in a slightly better position in the Lake Wylie area. New listings are on the rise in the area with many new construction projects helping to boost the supply. The new listings were up 23.9% from 67 to 83. Pending listings were down year over year from 75 to 62, down 17.3%. Homes spent longer on the market in 2018 with days on market up 102% from 51 to 103, but this probably reflects new construction homes which typically stay on the market substantially longer than existing Homes.
In River Hills there is an extreme shortage of Homes on the Market the lowest in recent memory 52 closed last year with currently only 9 on the Market. New Homes accounted for an amazing 245 sales with strong sales in the Paddlers Cove Community
WATERFONT MARKET UPDATE
Median prices continue to rise in the waterfront market due to low inventory and high demand, as of this writing there were just 91 active listings in both Carolinas down from the 120 to 140 we experienced over the last decade with a median asking price of $839,000 which is over $100,000 more than last year with only 5 priced below $600,000.
The 1 Million plus market was very active with 11 Million Dollar plus Homes closed in 2018 and currently 14 are on the market, both numbers are about the same as 2017. A total of about 120 legitimately waterfront Homes sold down from about 160 from the year before due to a shortage in inventory with a median price pushing close to $725,000 up from the low $600,000’s a number that stayed steady for some time.
TIPS FOR BUYERS AND SELLERS:
In this unusual Housing market it is still important to discuss Home staging, photography, drone shots, brochures, marketing, Web presence and most of all pricing strategy. Here are a few other tips to guide the process.
The Real Estate transaction is a complicated and emotional process. Contracts and addendums are extensive sometimes reaching 20 to 30 pages.
Make sure you review all the documents prior to listing or purchasing a property, that way there will be no surprises when time comes to make an offer or negotiate an offer..
Understand the hard deadlines for Loans to be approved, Inspections to take place and negotiations on any repairs, speaking of repairs this is the biggest deal killer of them all as Inspectors are paid to find out everything that is not perfect with the Property, that offends most all Sellers.
The best tip of all is always hire an experienced professional Agent not a friend of a friend that just got Licensed or the former Barber or Hair Stylist. Transactional experience is key to a successful and Happy Purchase or Sale.
David McCorkle
David lives on Lake Wylie and is the Principle Broker of Lake Wylie Realty. David has been a Licensed Broker for 40 Years.
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