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!
Today was my husband's first follow up appointment after his back surgery. This was MAJOR surgery. His incision along the bikini line about 11 inches. Now you ask the belly to get to the back? Yes, he had a new hybrid surgery involving fusion of two vertebrae and a complete disk replacement on the disk above that. It was a traumatic surgery, but so far the results are no back pain and no leg pain!
But back to the post.... I have to say we left the orthopedics office in high spirits. First the doctor and his assistant are very happy with his progress. He is able to get around much better than anticipated at this point and the lack of pain is a great indicator of success. We really love this doctor, he has been so great and answers all of my questions with patience. He listens to us and that has been so nice after years of battling to get something done with my husband's back. The second reason for our high spirits, the joy we were able to spread to doctor's team. Before we left the hospital earlier this month, my husband and I purchased "Thank You" cards. We then hand wrote a note to each of the nurses and technicians who had cared for him after surgery. We made a note and made it personal. We also wrote "Thank You" cards out to the orthopedic surgeon and his physician's assistant. Unfortunately, we didn't see the doctor to give him his card until today in the office.
Today, we were able to share the cards with the doctor and his assistant. The doctor read the card in front of us and stood there speechless for a few moments. My husband said he could tell the doctor had been touched, but this was small compared to how he touched our lives. He immediately took the card out and said Thank You to everyone on his staff and showed them the card. He came back into the room and told us, it is a team effort and he would share it with them all. There were so many smiling faces when we walked out of that room it was unbelievable. My husband even commented on how seeing their reactions was the best part of the day.
The lesson of this long post.... don't forget the power of writing a note. Not typing something up, but taking out a card and saying Thanks in some personal way to your friends, family, collegues, past clients, future clients. How often to you get to see a hand written note these days? They are precious and few and remember praise is easy. Touch someone and let them know they are appreciated.
To all my devoted readers, I will first apologize for missing March numbers. April rolled by very quickly and it seemed like the month was gone before I knew it. Again, please accept my apologize and don't give up on me!
March held up February's total number of units closed in Sumter County with 96! Down only four units from February at 100, but up from January at 69. Many agents could see this in the activity of buyers in the market. April showed a decrease to 87 units closed for Sumter County. Am I concerned about the drop? NO! When looking at the past years of data for closed units in April, it is not unusual to see April decrease over March. There are several reasons why this is true. One very important reason is income tax returns. Many families use income tax returns to purchase their home and they have normally received them by the end of March. Also if people are looking to purchase a home, April is a difficult month for families with children in school to purchase a home and move. Historically, this trend does change in May. Below is the Units Sold By Month back to 2004.
The number of new property listings in March decreased from February at 206 to 168 in March. The number of new property listings in Sumter County increased in April to 175 units. Historically we have seen fewer homes listed in April, but with the large decrease of listings in March, this number seems reasonable. Why the change to more listings in March, sellers are putting their homes on the market sooner anticipating more time on the market. Sellers would rather gamble with their home seller before they are ready to move than having their homes on the market after they have to relocate.
The YTD totals of new property listings in Sumter County, puts the area at a rate between 2006 and 2007. With the current rate of homes being sold, the number of properties on the market continues to increase. This will keep Sumter in a buyers market.
Given this information sellers must prepare their homes to be placed on the market and positioned with the best possible advantages to be sold. Is the home ready to market? Are you ready to keep it marketable and motivated? And last but not least, is your home priced right to give you best chances to sell?
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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