Sun News - While real estate prices made modest gains statewide, Grand Strand prices continued to fall last month, according to the South Carolina Realtors association. The median price – the price at which half sold for less and half sold for more – of a home, condo or villa along the Grand Strand was $135,000 in September, a 6.9 percent drop from the same month last year. The Grand Strand had the second largest drop in price of any area in the state in September; only the Greenwood area, with a 20 percent drop, lost more value, according to the Realtors group. The southern midlands and western upstate areas had the largest gains in price, with 24 percent and 10 percent respectively. Statewide the median price of a home, condo or villa was $150,000, a 1 percent increase from September 2010, according to the Realtors group. Many of the communities that have started seeing prices increase have more permanent residents and don’t have the high proportion of vacation and investment properties, said a real estate analyst with the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. “Investors are more apt to leave a property or allow it to go into foreclosure than a permanent resident would be. The end result is that prices drop,” he said.
Grand Strand real estate prices have been dropping consistently, but sales have fluctuated and last month about 1.9 percent fewer properties sold than did in September 2010, according to the Realtors group. Statewide, sales dropped 10.4 percent in September when compared to the same month last year. Beaufort, Greenwood and the York County and Lancaster County areas had the biggest drops in sales with 37.1 percent, 33.3 percent and 22.8 percent fewer sales respectively, according to the South Carolina Realtors association. Several areas in the state had significantly more properties sold in September, including the Aiken area where 41.4 percent more properties sold than last year, according to group.
