Statewide home sales increase 10% in April

Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Staff Report

COLUMBIA – More than 4,350 homes were sold statewide in April, a 10.5% increase over the number of homes sold in March and a 36.3% increase over homes sold last April, according to the latest report from the S.C. Realtors Association.

And while 13 out of the 15 markets reported an increase in April, the gains were much more modest than those reported in March, which included some triple-digit increases.

The three major metro areas, Greenville, Columbia and Charleston, posted increases in April of 17%, 10% and 13%, respectively.

Statewide, the median home price increased to $141,000, up from $139,000 in March. The number of days a home sat on the market increased from 151 in March to 152 in April.

Source: S.C. Realtors Association

Charleston County Council raises taxes

Thursday, 20 May 2010
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton

CHARLESTON -- Charleston County Council voted Tuesday to raise property taxes and some service fees to balance its 2011 budget.

A majority of council members approved the budget, saying they preferred to raise revenues to keep public services intact instead of implementing layoffs or furloughs to lower costs.

“We can’t balance this budget on the backs of our employees,” Councilman Elliott Summey said.

Cutting employee positions or hours would mean cutting services, Summey said.

County employees haven’t received raises or cost of living adjustments in recent years, he said, and this year they lost about $1,400 in take-home pay because of higher insurance costs. The county also has shed 60 jobs over the past year through attrition, he said.

Council Chairman Teddie Pryor said, “To ask 1,200 people to carry the whole burden of Charleston County is unfair.”

Two more votes and a public hearing are required before the budget is final.

Higher taxes
The increase in property taxes amounts to $25.50 on an owner-occupied home valued at $250,000, county officials said.

Of that increase, $8 comes from an increase in the property tax rate levied for debt repayment. The other $17.50 is the result of the county’s decision to use 90% of revenue from the local-option sales tax to offset the property tax burden, instead of the usual 100%.

The budget calls for keeping 10% of that sales tax revenue, or $3.8 million, to cover general fund expenses.

Some council members described the move as a temporary way to plug the budget. When times aren’t as tough, the county could return to a 100% credit, Councilman Vic Rawl said.

The overall 2011 budget, including operating, debt repayment and other funds, totals $351.3 million. Spending is down $18 million from the 2010 budget.

Council members voted 4-3 in favor of the budget. Council members Joe McKeown, Dickie Schweers and Colleen Condon voted against it.

“There is no way I can support a tax increase in this economy,” Schweers said before Tuesday’s vote. “It troubles me.”

McKeown asked that the county take money out of its reserve fund instead of raising taxes.

County staff and some council members have said doing so could jeopardize the county’s bond ratings, raising the cost of future borrowings.

Behind the increase
Total county revenues have declined nearly $12 million since 2009, according to County Administrator Allen O’Neal.

Charleston County is losing about $2 million more in state funding in 2011, said budget director Mack Gile, and the county’s property tax revenue is expected to be down about $2 million.

The recession has eroded the property tax base in several ways, Gile said. This year, the county has seen about 10 times the appeals on property assessments as in the past.

Tax revenue from motor vehicles is down as well, because people aren’t upgrading and replacing vehicles at the rate seen in past years, and vehicles depreciate annually, Gile said.

Last year, the county used about $500,000 in parking garage revenues to help cover debt service. That extra revenue wasn’t available this year, Gile said, likely a result of fewer people using the garages.

Meanwhile, the county must pay an additional $2.8 million in order to staff and operate its new detention center for a full year. The facility opened earlier this spring.

The 2011 budget does not include $18 million that County Council has promised to Trident Technical College for a new nursing education building. That debt, contingent on promises from Berkeley and Dorchester counties, will be issued in 2012, officials said.

Higher fees
Council members also gave a first approval to a measure that increases fees for some services.

Fees will go up for some planning, zoning and development permits, for example, and for Sheriff’s Office records checks and animal shelter services.

Council members who supported the fee increases said they shift more of the cost of those public services to the people who use them, rather than spreading them among all taxpayers.

CHARLESTON RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE SALES UP 50%, PRICES REMAIN STABLE

Activity Expected To Continue Into the Busy Summer Season

CHARLESTON, SC—(May 10, 2010) According to preliminary data from the Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS® (CTAR), 784 homes sold in the region during the month of April at a median sale price of $180,174. That reflects a 51% increase in sales and a stable median price when compared to preliminary figures from a year ago-- 518 homes had sold at a median price of $181,303 in April 2009.

“It’s encouraging to see a return to consistent growth in home sales” said CTAR President Jeremy Willits. “Year-over-year sales have increased every month since last July. We also see our market’s stability reflected in the median sale prices—they are on par or slightly above where they were last year, which is sound and appropriate growth for a market emerging from a period of volatility” said Willits.

Last-minute contracts had Charleston REALTORS® working late into the night to help buyers meet the tax credit deadline. “I had a buyer sign a contract at 11:45 p.m. on April 30” said Corwyn Melette, of CARES Real Estate. “There was a huge rush of activity in that last week, which was exciting and encouraging. Now, we just have to see those contracts through to the closing table. Our job is not done” said Melette.

351 contracts were placed in the last week of April, with 207 of those signed in the final three days. In the whole of April, 1,160 homes went under contract with an average contract price of $255,817.

While it’s safe to say that the tax credit had a significant and positive impact, some Charleston REALTORS® believe there were other, more sustainable factors at work, things that will continue to support the market. “I think the tax credit did help create urgency and stimulate activity levels, but I believe that low interest rates and wide selection of reasonably priced properties were equally, if not more important than the appeal of the tax credit” said REALTOR® Beth Tavel of Carolina One Real Estate.

Although the homebuyer tax credit has come and gone, affordable properties, low interest rates and other buyer incentives have not. The Palmetto Heroes program provides teachers, firefighters, police officers and EMS provisions including up to $7,000 in down payment assistance to aid in their purchase of a home, and military personnel who served at least 90 days of qualifying duty outside the United States between December 31, 2008 and May 1, 2010 have an additional year to purchase a home and qualify for the tax credit.

MARCH 2010 ADJUSTMENT
Preliminary numbers reported for March 2010 indicated 691 homes had sold at a median price of $185,000, a 22% increase in sales and no change in median price from March 2009.

Adjusted numbers now show that 735 homes sold at a median price of $185,000. The sales increase is actually 29% higher than March 2009, with prices remaining stable at $185,000.

BERKELEY COUNTY
When compared with April 2009, sales in Berkeley County increased 60%and prices increased 3%, with 199 sales and a median sale price of $159,900.

CHARLESTON COUNTY
404 homes sold in Charleston County in April, a 62% increase from last year. The county’s $233,200 median sale price is a slight 3% lower than April 2009.

DORCHESTER COUNTY
April was a strong month for Dorchester County, as sales increased 26% and prices rose 4%. 157 homes sold at a median price of $152,900.

With nearly 4,000 members, CTAR’s mission is to promote the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, education and technology, and to ensure that its members are the primary source for real estate services in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Only those who are members of the Association of REALTORS® and its parent organizations are called REALTORS®. To learn more, visit www.CharlestonRealtors.com

Charleston County backs rental fee for incentives

Thursday, 06 May 2010
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton

CHARLESTON -- Charleston County Council voted 8-1 Tuesday in favor of a new 5% tax on rental car receipts in the county. The tax would create a fund for expansion of air service, including the luring of low-cost air carriers to Charleston International Airport.

Tuesday’s vote was the first of three required for the tax to become law. The council also will hold a public hearing on the measure at 6:30 p.m. on May 20.

Area business and tourism groups are backing the 5% rental car tax, citing the region’s lack of competitiveness since low-cost carrier AirTran Airways pulled out of Charleston in December.

Several officials with those groups, which include the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Charleston County Aviation Authority and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, attended Tuesday’s meeting wearing red stickers that said “Let’s Fly.”

None of those officials spoke at the meeting.

But five local representatives of rental car companies spoke during the public comment period, telling council members they should oppose the tax because it would affect residents more than tourists.

Echoing a statistic that most rental car representatives quoted, Kristen Olson, group rental manager for Enterprise Holdings, said that, among the company’s dozen or so locations in the Charleston area, 80% of rentals are to people whose cars are being repaired.

Often those rentals are at the expense of insurance companies.

Councilman Elliott Summey largely dismissed the comment, noting that people pay insurance premiums to cover rental cars when needed.

Council Chairman Teddie Pryor asked Olson why, if the new tax would be such a problem to residents, none showed up to protest.

“I don’t see one person who’s a taxpaying citizen against this” except for rental car companies, Pryor said.

The 5% fee on gross receipts of passenger vehicles rented in Charleston County would generate about $1.5 million annually, according to Helen Hill, executive director of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Hill has said low-cost carriers nowadays are looking for financial support from a community before committing to serve an airport.

She has said the $1.5 million would not be an ongoing subsidy but rather would be used to offset an airline’s startup costs.

In a letter Hill sent to council members last week, she wrote that one carrier “has told us that as soon as an incentive package is available, it will move forward on offering service to Charleston.”

Local officials have not identified that airline. But state lawmakers, who are considering a larger incentive fund for air service, have said that Southwest Airlines is interested in starting service at the Charleston and Greenville-Spartanburg airports.

The legislation under consideration at the Statehouse would make up to $15 million available for airlines. Midlands lawmakers have blocked that bill because they feel Columbia Metropolitan Airport will suffer if Southwest starts service from Charleston and Greenville-Spartanburg.

This week lawmakers said a compromise deal is in the works.

“I hope we’ll be able to hear a great announcement very soon,” Councilwoman Colleen Condon said Tuesday after the council’s vote.

Last week, Summey said the local incentive fund on its own, without state dollars, would not be enough to lure the airline considering Charleston.

Councilman Dickie Schweers was the only council member to vote against the 5% tax Tuesday.

“I just really struggle with a 30%-plus tax on anything,” Schweers said.

Schweers was referring to an estimate of the total percentage of taxes and fees charged on cars rented from the airport.

Because some charges are taxes and some are flat fees, the actual total percentage depends on the cost of vehicle rented.

An online quote for a midsized sedan rented at Charleston International Airport shows a base price of $46.98. After taxes and fees, the total is $61.64. In that scenario, taxes and fees total about 30% of the cost.

That does not factor in the proposed 5% tax for airline incentives. It includes a 10%concession recovery fee, a $3.50-per-day customer facility charge, sales tax and a rental car tax.

The same size sedan, rented from the same company at a non-airport location in Charleston, has a base cost of $30.99, and $34.86 after adding existing taxes and fees. In that scenario, tax and fees add up to 11%.

The airport’s concession recovery fee and customer facility charge do not apply.

Councilman Henry Darby called the tax measure “corporate welfare” for companies that make billions of dollars. But he voted for it.