How is the real estate market in the Greenville area? (Columbia: for sale, renting)

[fallgirl]

Is the market still decent? Are things slowing down and are prices dropping? Here in Florida it is absolutely horrible.

Thanks,
Fallgirl

[fallgirl]

I know that the market in Florida is terrible, and I was just hoping to get info on the Greenville area. I have not listed my house as of yet and am strongly considering moving to the Greenville area. I am a Realtor and if the market is as bad as it is in Florida I will have to consider another line of work. Anyone care to respond?

[geoffandliz]

I saw your post earlier, but did not want to respond since I am not a realtor, and thought this was more directed someone in the business. I can tell you though , that we currently have our house for sale, and we have had 3 sell in our neighborhood in the past month. Also, I know my realtor selling wrote 2 contracts on sat himself. I don't think Greenville is a bad market. Houses are selling,and people are buying. Hope this helps.

Liz

[BuddyDog]

Finally...so happy to be here! This is my observation on the housing market in Gville:

We've been watching the market since this time last year and made 6 trips in the year to check out houses, new developments, etc. I have visited ggaronline.com at least weekly. We decided to zero in on the Greer/Taylors/TR area. That said, we put our house on the market in May in the Orlando area. We had consistent showings at least 2/week. By July we had a contract. Market slowdown you say? Hogwash! Well, the buyers backed out after two weeks. So we put the house up again...more showings, but hmmm....it seems to be a bit slower than the prior month, but still we had showings. Another contract in September, but the buyer could not get financing. By early Sept., we definitely saw the market almost grind to a halt. Buyers started getting very smug knowing it was their market. Although our showings slowed to 1 per week, we got another contract in October and closed on the 31st. Each contract offer was a bit less than the prior one. But this buyer too, wanted to back out 2 days before closing! Luckily we learned our lesson and pushed for a large nonrefundable escrow with the threat of a lawsuit to get them over their cold feet. 6 months, 3 contracts, 10% under asking price, and a LOT of stress is what it took to sell in what was deemed the worst month ever for home sales in Florida. We have no regrets - the market seems to still be dropping.

Compared to Gville, well, there is no comparison regarding volume. But we DO see a market slowdown (listings are increasing, ave. days to sell is increasing). We are renting a builders spec home because he has 4 to sell in our development alone, on the market for 6 months to 2 years! I ride around our area and see a lot of homes for sale (with huge incentive packages). It appears that the builders are experiencing what we did in FL around July: the coming-out-of-denial phase that indeed sales are slowing down. It may be just this area of Gville, I don't know because I said we are concentrating in this area, but overall, yes, its slowing. Another example: we put bids on two houses here, one in July and another in September for roughly 5%-7% under the asking price and yes, our realtor thought we were nuts. Neither offer was accepted. But, those houses are STILL for sale (both been on the market since April!) and one has dropped their list price to within 10K of our offer (on 500K homes). So who's nuts now?

We will continue to watch the market through spring at least.

[fallgirl]

Buddydog, You were very lucky to get out. I live just south of Daytona Beach and the market is awful here. Keep after those sellers who would not take your offer. If they really want to sell they will eventually get real.
Good luck.

Thanks,
Fallgirl

[geoffandliz]

I saw this on a realtor's website and thought it summed up this ? pretty good.
The table did not copy well, but I think you can see that Greenville sales and prices were up just a bit over last year!!!!!


The South Carolina Association of Realtors' recently released numbers for the first 3 quarters of 2007. These are from the 5 major real estate areas for the state.

Sales Change from 06 Median Price Change from 06
Charleston 9,219 -17.7% $211,000 1.50%
Columbia 8,349 -0.30 $145,000 3.90
GREENVILLE 7,369 0.90% $149,000 0.90
Hilton Head 1,879 -5.48 $356,000 -5.57%
Myrtle Beach 6,189 -28.9% $206,000 6.84%
Statewide 48,967 -8.75% $160,000 0.27%

[mjmom]

I am a realtor here in the upstate and I can tell it is a buyer's market at this time. We have listings and they seem to stay on the market an average of 60 days before being sold. On the mls for Greenville and Anderson there is about 2000 pending to be closed. I understand about Florida I am from there and can tell you we got out 2 and a half years ago when things were still moving.

[BuddyDog]

The feeling I get about the housing market here is like what we went through in Orlando a few years ago. EVERYONE started putting up new houses, condos and then there were tons of condo conversions (apts going condo). "Experts" in the field were riding the wave high saying 'no end in sight'.... I think they were all drinking the koolaid honestly...LOL. But sure enough, it ended, and now there are tons of condos and homes just sitting there either empty, half started or not started at all.

Saturation of a market can happen in any size area. Like I said, Gville is not going to go through it at the level seen in FL, but the signs of slowdown are there. Even though right now the sales %'s are good, the ave. number of days to sell is increasing and inventory is increasing too. All that equals a buyers market. We've got quite the pick of the litter in area 013 and 014 here. Blue Ridge Plantation ie, lots of homes sitting there for sale over two years old. At least we will get the chance to make up some of what we lost by selling in FL at this time.

[justNancy]

I'm also not a real estate agent, and I also don't live there (yet) but I've been watching the listings for over a year and I see many homes that haven't moved in months. Some builders are having "sales" because of excess inventory. Looks as if those are the national builders like Lennar and Ryland (Beazer in the Columbia area) I often wonder if they're really bargains or the original prices have been inflated. However, I have noticed the news homes moving faster than the ones in the established communities, but perhaps it's because of national advertising and warranties. Then there are those people who simply prefer moving into a brand new home. Maybe the real estate agents who are posting can confirm this, since I am only judging by my research.

The Greenville County MLS has listings that begin with 112, 113 and 114. I am quite certain they are chronological, not by area. (correct me if I'm wrong) Also, I've seen several expired listings (in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville) but that doesn't mean they won't go on the market again. Aren't homes with expired contracts that go back on the market listed as new? So just because a home is a new listing doesn't mean it wasn't for sale 6 months ago.

[BuddyDog]

justnancy, you are correct that the MLS numbers are chronological, not by area. The numbers I referred to (013, 014) are Area numbers that refer to geographical areas. On the Find A Home page of ggaronline, you will see the Greenville area divided into these area numbers.

And yes, when a listing becomes expired and relisted it is given a new MLS #. Your realtor should be able to check into the listing history of the house and tell you if it has been previously listed. I think its humorous that sellers think if they relist their house with a new MLS # that it will generate interest as being a 'new' listing. I hope this has been helpful.