March is quickly approaching and with it - spring!
Once the chill is out of the air it's time to get back up and outside for some home maintenance.
Here are some items for your list of must-do spring sprucing.
Change your air filters - do this monthly for best use
Check for leaky faucets and clogged drains
Look for signs of pests and take preventative measures before it gets too warm
Refresh outdoor furniture
Repair or replace window screens
Declutter
What are we missing? What will you do to freshen your home for spring?
Friday, February 15, 2013
Economists: Repeat of Charleston area’s double-digit home sales growth last year possible
By JIM PARKER
The Post and Courier
In the case of South Carolina’s housing and jobs
numbers — which include greater Charleston’s — the state tends to be an
economic chart-topper.
South Carolina had a near-top
score for its six-month “state leading (economic) index” from November
through April, according to the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia and
reported Tuesday at a housing update in Charleston.
The
regional Fed’s index looks at housing permits, initial unemployment
insurance claims, employment, manufacturing hours worked and wage
outlays tempered by consumer prices.
Just two months earlier, South Carolina was the only state with a predicted half-year growth rate of more than 4.5 percent.
What
all this means is the Palmetto state carries considerable weight in
terms of its financial forecast and housing outlook — akin to the early
primary states in a presidential election.
Further,
events such as the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors’
“Residential Market Update - 2012 Year in Review” held Tuesday can be
important barometers of the country’s fiscal future.
“The
bottom line is the South Carolina economy was much stronger (last
year), nearly twice the growth of 2011,” says Joseph Von Nessen,
research economist with the Moore School of Business at the University
of South Carolina.
“Housing turned a corner in 2012
(with) increases on the local level in prices, starts and permits,” he
told more than 300 agents at the morning gathering at the Charleston
Marriott.
The most telling figure is that home sales
in metro Charleston, based on the area Multiple Listing Service, climbed
12.5 percent last year from 2011. The sizable increase was not
unexpected, Von Nessen says: This time last year, he forecast a 14
percent year-to-year surge for 2012.
Von Nessen eyes a
similar sales run-up this year, although there’s still “market
uncertainty.” This year’s expiration of a 2 percent Social Security tax
rollback — which comes out of worker’s paychecks — could “blunt growth,”
he says.
Von Nessen provided mostly state and local
economic and real estate trends. By contrast, NumberNomics economist
Stephen Slifer offered a national perspective on how President Obama and
Congress should “seize the moment” and hash out real deficit-reduction
reform in 2013.
The economist sides with a report
from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,
commonly known as Bowles-Simpson. The bipartisan group of 18 leaders,
headed by former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and business-political adviser
Erskine Bowles, fashioned a plan in 2010. It would rein in the
debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio — predicted to soar to 186 percent
by 2035 at current rates of GDP and debt growth — to a more manageable
40 percent within 22 years, Slifer says.
The
commission’s solutions include slashing the top tax rates to 23 percent
(from 39 percent) for individuals and 35 percent (from 26 percent) for
corporations; eliminating most tax deductions but keeping charitable and
mortgage interest deductions; cutting defense and non-military budgets
roughly the same amount; upping the retirement age to 68 while raising a
graduated Social Security payroll tax rate to $190,000 in income; and
increasing the Medicare age to 68, not covering the first $500 in
medical expenses and paying 50 percent of expenses between $500 and
$5,000.
In his remarks, Slifer also forecast a 2.7
percent GDP rise this year, the jobless rate shrinking to 7.3 percent,
inflation holding at a minuscule 1.9 percent and the 30-year mortgage
dipping to a record-low 3 percent.
“If we can do this and solve budget problems, this won’t be just a great deal but fantastic,” he says.
The Realtors event coincided with the association releasing its annual report on the Charleston Trident real estate market.
“With
a mean crossover dribble and a wicked head fake, housing is again
driving the lane with authority,” says the report, sprinkled with
basketball imagery.
“Restoring seller confidence,” the nine-page synopsis notes, “is a slam dunk to continued recovery.”
Home
prices eased upward to a median $190,000, a 4.4 percent increase from
2011 and “down only 8.6 percent from their bubbly apex in 2007,” the
report says. “They have recovered from the air ball lows of 2009.”
It concludes, “Here’s to continued improvement and a breakaway year.”
Among other findings:
•
Heading the rise in new listings in the region was Hanahan, up 21.2
percent; while Daniel Island showed the steepest drop, off 15.7 percent.
Closed sales in the Hollywood-Meggett-Ravenel area shot up 61.3
percent; They slid 30.4 percent in St. George and rural Dorchester
County. Home inventories ranged from a 1.2 percent decline in the
Wando-Cainhoy area to a 44.5 percent drop on Daniel Island. Median sale
prices rose 13.5 percent in Hollywood-Meggett-Ravenel and fell 8 percent
in St. George-rural Dorchester County. The highest townhome-condo
market share was Folly Beach at 54.5 percent.
• The
average number of days that homes were for sale in greater Charleston
last year was 100, the lowest figure in at least four years. Days on
market until sale sank 27.8 percent in Sullivan’s Island and surged 36.8
percent in rural Berkeley County.
• New-construction
homes for sale dropped below 1,000 from a peak of nearly 3,000 in
January 2008. The new-home leader by market share was Johns Island at
51.1 percent.
• Sales of distressed properties —
those with seriously delinquent or defaulted home loans — totaled 26.6
percent of all deals in 2012. The figure was off 0.9 percent from the
year before. Four years ago, just 7.4 percent of sales were of
distressed homes. Greater North Charleston reported the largest share of
distressed properties at 38.6 percent while downtown Charleston claimed
the smallest share, 9.4 percent.
For more information, visit www.charlestonrealtors.com.
Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com
The map above shows the change in house prices by state from the past four quarters. The latest map was released at the end of the 3rd Quarter 2012. What you'll find is that home prices in South Carolina are increasing. This is great news for home owners and good motivation for potential buyers to act now before prices go even higher!
The housing recovery is vital to our country's economic rebound and we are excited to see some good news on the state of the housing market in our area.
