| Current Information |
State of the Market Address
Added Dec. 18th, 2006
Well it has been one crazy year in real estate on Hilton Head and across the country. After a few record setting years the market put on the breaks and buyers lost that sense of urgency that made the greatest selling market in history. Many things contributed to this screeching stop namely fear of rising interest rates, unsure economy, elections and mainly our good friends in the press. I guess like any type of market we have are good times and our bad.
The great news about Hilton Head however is prices have stayed pretty flat. We have not seen the declines like other resort areas across the country most properties are selling for the same price as they were at the beginning of '06 however there were a few crazy sales in this period and we have not seen as many follow up comps on those. This flattening instead of a delcine in prices is going to be a big positive for buyers and sellers in '07. This also shows that Hilton Head is a great value and not over priced like many other resort areas.
The inventory remains very high although I would say 80% are over priced and not truly sellers. You must price your properties if you want to sell them in the next year with an end of '05 and beginning of '06 type number. Things did not go up 20% again like most of the area sellers think and therefore have their properties overpriced. Another problem with overpricing is the number of realtors in our area (most of them part time). They take any listing no matter the price and it affects our market. They think a listing means money and without a buyer we know that is not the case. It is hard to keep all area prices correct when one realtor is saying the house is worth $50,000 more than the other. Hopefully the slow market is weeding out some of these secondary agents.
Yes it is a buyers market and some buyers are starting to see it. We have had some good action in the last few weeks as the perception is deals are easier to come by in the winter. Plus rates are still great a 30 year fixed is currently at 5.75%. That is historically very low. Smart buyers are seeing this and taking advantage of some great deals out there when the inventory is high and some sellers are put into a must sell situation. Also with this low rate I recommend you look into getting our of your ARM's and into a fixed if this makes more sense in your future goals. If you have plans to buy in '07 it will be a good time as values are strong and there is a lot to choose from.
Sellers the time is not as bad as you think. Things are picking up and the spring is booking up on our calendars with people coming in to look. If your peoperty is priced correctly it will be in the action just odds is it will not sell in the 30 or less days that we used to take for granted.
The overall outlook is very positive. The rates have not gone up much at all! The bubble did not burst like the press so desperatley wanted and the economy keeps plugging along. The Hilton Head market remains a great place to live and invest not to mention all the baby boomers we have coming our way. I hope you enjoyed my update and look forward to working with you all in the future.
Thanks,
Ben Ferguson
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