Posted on Feb 06, 2009 - 08:02 AM

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Market Presents Challenge, Opportunity

About a week after Condolux offered its take on the state of the local real estate market, the Sun News’ Jessica Foster provided this breakdown of the current condition of the seller’s market along the Grand Strand. Among their findings:

We’re looking at a “good news/bad news” scenario for sellers: fewer homes on the market to compete with, but sales going at a slower rate.
Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors market analyst Tom Maeser expects the local housing market to show signs of recovery later this year, but “he doesn’t think the market will flip back to the seller’s domain until 2010.”
If you go by the 2008 rate of sales, there’s a 10-month difference right now between the time it will take to sell the area’s single-family house listings (22 months) as compared to its active inventory of condo listings (32 months).

Tim Horton, vice president of sales at OceanInvestments.com, tells us that the down economy has depressed the oceanfront condo market here to the tune of 35 to 40 percent from the height of the bubble market. The good news?

”This has become a great buyer’s market – incredible, actually,” said Horton. “We’re able to offer some magnificent bargains from developer inventories that are extremely accessible to the buyer right now.”