Scott Bingham

Ok, second time for this posting... grrr- what good is autosave if you can't get to it???

Anyway, let me get a smile back on my face... it was a great weekend... sold hotdoggies out at the Burton Wells concession stands while my son and daughter did baseball and soccer. What a gorgeous weekend!

Here are the stats for the Beaufort residential market for the week ending Monday April 20th 2009-

As you can see, the inventory is still climbing, and climbing faster than our under contract numbers.

Just in case you can't read the numbers- we have 949 residetial units for sale in the Beaufort, Mossy Oaks, Port Royal, Burton, and Lady's Island areas. There is an increase of 5 units for Under Contract for a total of 67 and there have been 106 sales for the year.

Look at the next two charts, because they are linked:

The one thing I noticed in this weeks numbers was that you had a fairly significant discount in the Sales to List Price Ratio while having a fairly short DOM. These have usually not been linked... when there was a short DOM it was because most of the houses that sold were priced AT the market, not above the market, and that they sold in short order at 95% of list price. I think this is the first time that there has been both a 20% discount and a short DOM. This does not bode well for sellers if this continues...

We'll keep an eye on what's going on... that's our job! If you have any questions or concerns on how these trends apply to you and your property, please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

These are a couple days late... doing the last minute tax sweat! I e-filed this year and I have felt so restless today- no post office, no certified mail, just waiting on emails.

Our inventory did tick back up this week as you can see from the following chart:

I thought that last weeks dip may have just been un-relisted expireds. The under contracts held steady at 62 while 7 houses closed for the week.

The days on the market overall was really pretty good with the exception of on listing that was on the market for 700+ days and skewed the average a little longer than it would have been otherwise.

If not for that one looonnnggg listing, I think the DOM would have been under 90.

As I promised last week, I started compiling the absorbtion rate for the month, and for March, it dropped back down to about 28 months worth of inventory across all price points. Obviously, this is a more meaningful stat when it is specific to a price range or subdivison, but it is what it is- a generality describing the market as a whole. I do compile the absorbtion rates for different price points, and if you write me I will furnish those. I just don't have them handy right now. At any rate, 28 months beats the pants off of 62 months for February!

The average Sale to List Ratio went back up to 92%, and again if it hadn't been for that one long listing, it would have been above 95%. Sometimes I consider leaving out the one anomally for the week, but it does represent a property that someone had, and it is an accurate representation of what is happening. It's just that there is such a small sample that it can really skew the numbers.

OK, it is really late, and my sweet wife is already in bed... good night!

For the first time this year, the greater Beaufort area has over 10% of the available inventory of homes under contract!! Yeah!!!!!

As of Monday the 12th, there were 925 houses for sale (actually houses, new homes, mobile homes, and condos) for sale and there were 96 under contract.

These stats do not include Saint Helena, Dataw, Fripp, and Harbor Islands and the Sheldon and more northern areas. They do include Beaufort, Port Royal, Burton, and Lady's Island. That is where 90% of my business is and where probably 85% of the MLS business is.

This is a good sign, and it should be a shove to those who have been waiting to buy. I will write more on this later, but the only way to know you are at the bottom of a cycle is when it starts heading back up. Of course, then you've missed the bottom, haven't you... Doh!! Besides, the best houses always go first, no matter what kind of market you are in.

If you are looking in the Beaufort area, go by BeaufortHomeTeam.com and set up your own account.