Richard M. Sander (Your Myrtle Beach Real Estate Expert)

Cold winter? Wishing you could play a round of golf that doesn’t involve an ice pick? Have three friends that feel the same way?

The airline formerly known as Myrtle Beach Direct Air has announced a special promotion for golfers (although it will work for any group of four).

Here’s how it works. Put together three family members, friends, acquaintances, or guys with golf clubs and the airline will give you one free ticket when you purchase three. Flights to Myrtle Beach during the months of March, April and May are eligible for this deal, and all four passengers must fly on the same reservation and itinerary. Of course, we’d love it if you buy some Myrtle Beach real estate while you’re here, too.

We had trouble finding this promotion on the airline’s website this morning. It might be an unadvertised special, but we’ve got the details, so if you’d like to take advantage of this offer, call our office at 843.272.1266.

After the Obama Administration’s 2010 budget was released last week, housing industry experts quickly scoured the details for anything that would adversely affect homeowners. We were especially interested in how it would affect Myrtle Beach real estate owners.

As currently drafted, the plan changes the Mortgage Interest Deduction by reducing the amount of mortgage deductibility on homeowners earning over $250,000. Since a large percentage of Myrtle Beach second home and investment property owners are higher wage earners, we at Price & Company Realty are vehemently opposed to this provision of the budget.

At best, this proposed change to the Mortgage Interest Deduction will eliminate one of the most attractive tax benefits of owning more real estate than just a primary home. At worst, a second credit crisis could emerge before the first one is resolved, and this one would hit vacation destinations (like Florida, California and Myrtle Beach) especially hard, at a time when we can ill afford it.

We urge you to voice your opinion to your elected leaders.

As of Sunday, February 22, 2009:

248 of 2,913 oceanfront condos in our MLS are pending. That’s 8.5% of the available inventory.

479 of 5,644 single family homes in our MLS are pending. That’s 8.5% of the available inventory.

This represents almost twice as much activity than the averages we’ve seen over the last 12 months.

If you’re thinking about Myrtle Beach real estate, it’s time to get off the fence before it’s too late.

Kent Johnson, a Broker/Associate in southern California, shares this new real estate trend:

A new condo listing of mine received an acceptable offer this week after ten days on the market and brisk activity: twenty showings, two offers, and two more offers threatening. The model match unit (a foreclosure) in the complex just closed two weeks prior for $289K. That unit had been listed below market for $269K and sparked a bidding contest that resulted in a sale $20K over list price, a common scenario with bank-owned (REO) properties these days.

Over the last year, the selling price of that REO unit would have lowered the bar and effectively established the new "fair market value" for the complex. My seller listed in a price range starting at $300K and accepted an offer for $317K which is $28K higher than the fresh "comp" sale! Not likely to have happened just a few months ago.

And this is in California - supposedly the worst market in the country. All Hail California!

(Looking for more San Diego County real estate news? Kent is my source, and should be yours, too!)

Earlier this week, we asked how many signs you needed as “proof” that the real estate market was beginning its turnaround.

Now, economists and media outlets no less important than The Wall Street Journal are joining us in shining a positive light on real estate for 2009.

Mark Zandi, Economy.com’s chief economist, announced that “the bottom of the housing downturn is in sight.”

The Wall Street Journal - no friend to real estate over the past two years - ran an article above the fold crowing, “For some, it’s finally time to dive into the housing market”

Just as housing troubles preceeded the national economic slump, a housing recovery may lead the way out as well. And once the national media stop scaring the bejeebers out of consumers, positive trends such as pent-up demand, attractive financing and the increased tax incentives will reinforce the idea that the timing is right.