THE HOUSING MARKET COMES ALIVE

Last night's ABC Nightline featured a story on the recovering housing market and an interview with the co-author of the S&P's Case-Shiller Index.

Home Sweet Home
(To Watch the Nightline Video Select The Link Above)

Corner Turned? Home Prices Rise for First Time in 3 Yrs

S&P Index Shows Home Prices Rose 3 Percent in 2nd Quarter, the First Quarterly Gain Since 2006

NEW YORK August 25, 2009
(AP) The Associated Press

A closely watched index shows home prices posted their first quarterly increase in three years, signaling the housing market has turned a corner.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller's U.S. National Home Price Index released Tuesday rose nearly 3 percent from the first quarter, though was still down almost 15 percent from the second quarter last year.

Home prices are at levels not seen since early 2003.

The monthly index of 20 major cities increased 1.4 percent from May to June, the second straight month the index registered a gain. It was still 15 percent below June a year ago.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

HOMEBUILDERS SAY BANK CREDIT CAN HELP ECONOMY

Monday, 24 August 2009
By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com

COLUMBIA — Several top Southeast homebuilders contend that federal regulators need to let more banks make loans to homebuilders so that the industry can help revive the American economy.

Regulators have told bankers that new housing construction is a highly risky loan category in this economy, and the resulting constriction in credit is prolonging the industry’s woes, several leaders of the home building industry said Thursday.

The Carolinas and Georgia have relatively healthy economies, except for the credit crunch, said David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders.

With the exception of metro Atlanta, these states never took as high a run-up in the boom years and have seen relatively less damage in the downturn, he said.

If credit were to become more available, homebuilding could increase, and a ripple effect would be to boost weakened employment, he said. The housing industry could have a strong impact on jobs because so many other industries also rely on it, he said.

Homebuilding is about 15% of the U.S. gross domestic product and has led the economy out of previous recessions, Crowe said.

Congress should make clear to regulators that it’s time for more lending to homebuilders, said Frank Wiesner, CEO of Olde South Homes in Raleigh, N.C. Homebuilding has been buoyed on the lower end of the market by the $8,000 credit for new buyers, but that boost is winding down, as the program will end in the fall.

Steven Mungo, CEO of Mungo Cos. and president-elect of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina, agrees that the crunch is limiting economic revival. He said he was contacted by a builder who had five homes under contract to build, but the bank would lend him money for only three. The builder asked Mungo to take on the other two.

Such tight credit will make a bad housing market worse, Wiesner said. This year is likely to produce the fewest homes built in the U.S. since the 1940s, when the country’s population was half its current level, he said.

JULY RESIDENTIAL SALES INCREASE 4% FROM ONE YEAR AGO

JULY RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE SALES INCREASE 4% FROM ONE YEAR AGO

CHARLESTON, SC—(August 10, 2009) Preliminary data from the Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS® shows 796 residential properties changed hands in July, with a median sale price of $181,889. July’s activity resulted in the third consecutive month of increases in sales, and a more than 4% increase over sales in July 2008.

Inventory dropped slightly, with 10,852 homes currently listed for sale with the Charleston Trident Multiple Listing Service.

BERKELEY COUNTY
Berkeley County beat June’s year-to-date high of closed sales by 18% in July, with 190 homes sold. The median sales price was $147,950. The area around Highway 17-A showed the highest number of sales for the second month in a row. The Sangaree subdivision had the highest number of closed transactions in the county.

CHARLESTON COUNTY
Sales in Charleston County reached their highest level in 2009 during the month of July. 404 homes sold, at a median price of $228,500. The most active areas of the county were in West Ashley (outside of I-526 to Rantowles) and the area of Mount Pleasant south of Highway 41, where 69 homes sold in each area.

DORCHESTER COUNTY
170 homes sold in Dorchester County in July, with a median sale price of $166,837. The majority of market activity took place in the Summerville/Ridgeville area, with 65 sales. Legend Oaks and White Gables were the subdivisions with the most activity.

90-DAY ADJUSTMENT

CTMLS is now makes available adjusted sales reports 90 days following preliminary reports. The MLS is a user-driven system, with a number of factors that could delay entry of transactions beyond the preliminary reporting day on the 10th of each month. The adjusted figures reflect all transactions entered into the system up to 100 days after the close of the month.

Preliminary data from April 2009 showed 518 sales at a median price of $181,303. Adjusted numbers show 572 sales at the same median price.

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON HOME VALUE INDEXSM
The College of Charleston Monthly Home Value IndexSM indicates that the value of a typical home in the Charleston Tri-County Area increased by 1.87% in July 2009. In comparison, the change in the index value was +2.51% in June, 2009, and +8.61 in May, 2009. The index tracks the value of a “typical” home in each defined geographic area (tri-county and smaller areas) over time. The index should not be interpreted relative to the value of all homes, but to the value of a “typical” home with the contributions to value from that home’s features evaluated at the average estimated prices of those individual features. To view details of the College of Charleston’s Home Value IndexSM, please click here.