The real estate market is dynamic (ever-changing). In addition, real estate is "hyper-local", meaning that while the metro area may be behaving in a certain way (as a whole), sub-market areas may be behaving differently. The conventional wisdom says that 6 Months of Inventory (or a range from 5 to 7) corresponds to a "balanced" or "neutral" market, where the same numbers of homes come on the market than are sold in a given month, therefore the inventory is steady, there are no price fluctuations, and both buyers and sellers have the same amount of leverage. Above 7 months is a "buyer's market" as there are many available listings and not enough buyers (home prices tend to fall). Below 5 months is a "seller's market" as there are many buyers, not enough homes to satisfy this demand (scarcity)
This image compares the Months of Inventory (index that measures the relationship between supply and demand) for the different MLS areas in the Charleston-Trident MLS. In addition to the CURRENT "temperature" of the market area, I did a comparison with the same chart for last year to see if any areas had any big "momentum change". I found at least 6 areas that had "substantial change" in momentum:
Areas 31 (North Charleston inside 526), 41 Mount Pleasant North of IOP Connector), 52 (Downtown Charleston Peninsula Outside of the Crosstown) , 22 (Folly Beach), and 51 (Downtown Charleston Peninsula Inside of the Crosstown) cooled down (i.e. increased their Months of Inventory.
The only areas with dramatic improvement these last 12 months were areas 26,27 & 28 (Edisto), that went from a cold sellers' market (17.1 months) to a neutral market (5.5 months) this year.
Data Source: Charleston Real Estate Stats
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