Strand real estate sales take a dive

By Jenny Burns
Sun News Mrytle Beach

New real estate sales statistics for April show the Grand Strand still reporting the largest drop in sales in the state.

Homes and condominium sales dropped 22 percent on the Strand in April compared with the same time period the previous year. Charleston was next in line with a 15 percent drop in sales, according to the S.C. Association of Realtors. Many inland areas are posting sales increases.
Working through the coast's large inventory will take a while, analysts say.

"One of the reasons homes don't sell is pricing. We've got a lot of investors and people that bought homes on the high end that are either reluctant to lower the price or they are trying to maintain the price. Buyers are seeing if prices will come down, and they are not making quick decisions about purchasing right now," said Tom Maeser, market analyst and president of the Fortune Academy of Real Estate.

"The longer that sellers hold out for above market prices, it's going to delay that selling time. As our inventory gets depleted, we're going to start seeing a return to what people are calling a better or more stable market." Right now, the sales figures are being compared against record sales last year. The last six months of 2005 and the first six months of 2006 were the best sales ever on the Grand Strand, Maeser said. While sales are dropping along the coast, prices in April year-over-year reported increases along the Strand, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
Homes increased 15 percent in median price, while condos increased 31 percent in median price.
But analysts say that large condo price increase was skewed by sales in one upscale condominium building in April.

The 124 units that sold in Royal Palms skewed average and median prices for the month of April, Maeser said. The average price for those units was $537,374.
Going to timeshares Developer Casey Shroff, who bought The Hoffman Group last year, has started a new timeshare company in Myrtle Beach that will offer five resorts. Shroff said he's expanding into the timeshare industry with Oceania Family of Resorts because prices for new oceanfront condominiums have gotten so high that some groups of buyers can't afford them.
"The real estate market has gone up in price dramatically, and down some, but is still fairly high, starting at $249,900. That leaves a whole bunch of customers from getting in the market as far as new construction is concerned," he said.

Shroff's company - led by Mike Cousins, former vice president of Interval Ownership at Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. - will be different in terms of offering five oceanfront mixed-use resorts on the Grand Strand and giving buyers the opportunity to move from a timeshare to fractional ownership and eventually to whole ownership, he said.

Cousins says survey research shows vacationers want to stay on the beach but have the option to stay in different areas along the Strand - and Oceania's five resorts will offer that flexibility.
Shroff, a longtime developer, said he's convinced that the market is heading into timeshares in the long run.

"With a cost of $6,000 to $18,000, that opens up the market dramatically for us," he said.
The new company opens for sales June 1 with a staff of 50 people, said Cousins, who also serves as the chairman for the Carolinas chapter of the American Resort Development Association.

S.C. foreclosure rates far lower than nation

By Daily Journal Staff

The nation’s foreclosure activity dipped 1% in April from March but was still 62% higher than the foreclosure rate in April 2006. The decline posted after hitting a two-year high in March.

The April data was released today by RealtyTrac, an online marketplace of foreclosure properties and the foreclosure data provider for MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s “Real Estate Journal.” RealtyTrac’s statistics include properties in various stages of foreclosure, including defaults, auctions and bank repossessions.

South Carolina was No. 43 in the nation for foreclosures in April, with 292 properties in some stage of foreclosure, representing one foreclosure for every 6,022 South Carolina households. The number represented a 14.12% drop from March and a 57.31% decrease from April 2006.

Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in April at 3,737 foreclosures, with one foreclosure filing for every 232 households.

Other states ranking among the nation’s top 10 for foreclosures included California, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.

Wyoming had the lowest rate of foreclosures in the nation in April, with 20 properties in some stage of foreclosure representing one foreclosure for every 11,193 households.

The report showed a total of 147,708 foreclosure filings nationwide in April, with the national foreclosure rate at one foreclosure filing for every 783 U.S. households during the month.