Another busy month in the Sumter County real estate market. Lots of buyers were out looking, but not necessarily buying. I am noticing that agents are more creative with their buyers' offers. Several of my buyers had homes to sell prior to being able to close or they were still in a lease and wanted to have a home waiting for them when the lease was over. There are legal ways to handle these situations so make sure your Realtor is knowledgeable in how to help you the buyer or the seller.
The number of units sold in September was almost the same from August 2008 (86 vs.87). We are still seeing buyer activity in the area, but I think many buyers are taking a wait and see attitude with the economy and the elections.
As for the number of listings, Sumter County saw a slight increase from 151 in August to 161 in September. I am not sure this is a true number as we have seen many Realtors changing brokerages and reentering their listings. October will continue to be effected by many of these agent changes to different brokerages. I don't expect to see true numbers until after the agent changes have settled down.
Overall Sumter County has had 829 units closed during 2008. This has put us below the 2004 sales levels, but as far as general trends we continue to follow prior years as you can see in the year to date chart below. This week I attended a meeting about the services AgentOwned Realty offers and the General Manager for Residential Mortgage of SC was speaking about how the mortgage market has changed in the last 13 months. If you look at the chart for the Year To Date sales you can see the number of units closed started to fall off in August 2007.
I expect the remainder of 2008 to remain slow due to the holidays coming up and also the elections. I am not ready to make any predictions about 2009 with all the fluctuations we are seeing on Wall Street and in the financial markets around the world. I do know that the changes that have all ready been made will take months to impact the markets. I just hope we see the changes sooner rather than later.
Copyright®, October 2008, Kim Peasley-Parker.
Ok, so my predictions for the market holding steady did not exactly happen in August. To be honest though, I was shocked when I researched the numbers and saw that only 87 units closed in Sumter County during the month of August. This was a true surprise because we were having a lot of buyer activity.... With that being said, I still think my predictions will hold true from my July Market Update.
The units sold decreased to 87 in August vs. 103 in July, with the pending decreasing from 172 in July to 166 in August. The number of pending at the end of August was still higher than June at 164. Based upon the activity in September, I am expecting to see the number of closings climb in September.
August also brought the lowest number of listings for a month in 2008! With only 151 units listed in August, we saw a decrease of 31 units vs. July 2008. The trend of listings per month over the past several years indicates a decrease in listings until approximately November.
Overall Sumter has had 743 units closed year to date with 1436 units listed. Our listing inventory remains high, but may normalize more if the number of listings per month decreases or stay around the August level. Also with the changes in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the interest rates have decreased and makes it a great time to purchase a home.
Copyright®, September 2008, Kim Peasley-Parker.
Consistency has been the key in the past several months in the Sumter County Market. We have maintained a consistent amount of units sold with the exception of January. June brought an increase to 106 units. This is the second highest number of closing since August of 2007.
Listings are remaining consistent with 177 new listings during the month of June. This is down from over 210 during the month of June 2007.
The 2008 year-to-date listings for Sumter County are down 100 units over the same time in 2007. The 2008 year-to-date listings are higher than 2004, 2005, 2006 (only slightly), but we are seeing the listings level off.
What does this mean? My interpretation and predictions (remember I am just a Realtor® and not a news reporter...)
Now we will all have to keep an eye on the market and see if my predictions are close.
Copyright®, July 2008, Kim Peasley-Parker.
With 95 properties sold in Sumter County during May 2008, the number of properties sold during May is holding consistent with prior months. With the exception of January 2008, the number of units sold in Sumter County has been between 87 and 105 units since September 2007. I do expect to see the numbers increase slightly during June and July as we have the PCS (transfer) season upon us for Shaw Air Force Base.
The monthly listings for Sumter, SC also remained near previous levels with 185 properties listed for sale during the month. The numbers are still showing a larger number of homes being listed than sold and a buyers market continues. Year to date there have been a total of 447 units closed in Sumter and a total of 926 properties listed for sale.
Despite news reports it is a good time to purchase a home. The sellers are more open to negotiations and the interest rates are still near all time lows. Yes, buyers are qualifying for mortgages everyday, but many of the looser lending practices of years past are gone. If you want to know about qualifying for a mortgage, call me today for my list of recommended lenders and they will help you get prequalified.
Copyright 2008, Kim Peasley-Parker
Sumter -Shaw Street Fest 2008
The Sumter Shaw Street Fest is an event sponsered by the Sumter Chamber of Commerce and Shaw Air Force Base to honor the men and women servicing at Shaw Air Force Base. The Festival takes up two city blocks and starts with a stage and live bands at one end of the festival and the other block is games and rides for the children. In between, there are food vendors, the balloon guy and other displays from Shaw Air Force Base.
Shaw Air Force Base turned out with many interesting and entertaining displays. It really gave the average person a glimpse of what happens beyond the gates of the base. Below are several pictures of the festival.
Shaw Robot Working Demo
1951 Fire Truck from City of Sumter
Balloon Man- I can only imagine how sore his fingers were at the end of the event. The kids were lined up waiting for a chance to get their balloon sculpture.
Air Force Fire and Rescue Vehicle
Weather Station Demo
Fire Cat visits with some children. This little lady was very interested in fire cat and had a great conversation with him.
If you are in Sumter during the next Street Fest, mark your calendars and plan to attend. It is great family entertainment and very interesting!
I am a full time Realtor® in Sumter, SC. I work with many families relocating to Sumter or within Sumter for Military (Shaw AFB), Retirement and personal reasons.
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