Area housing market seeks sales, price bounce

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

A healthy number of homes are for sale in the Charleston area, including this brick house west of the Ashley. The housing market struggled nationally in 2007 and has been treading water locally. A local expert isn't sure the market has bottomed out yet.

Recent housing woes have raised questions about when the market will turn upward. That's hard to say, but it's definitely not yet, says Brad Rundbaken, a local real estate consultant who quarterly publishes The Charleston Market Report.

"What agitates me more than anything is when real estate agents try to push a client into buying a home by saying, 'We have already hit the bottom here in Charleston. You should buy this home now.' This statement is not true, and agents making these comments should not be in the business because you are deceiving your own clients," he says.

His chart on Tri-county Existing Residential Sales Momentum, current through November, shows "zero evidence" of the Charleston market bottoming out right now, Rundbaken says. "Although we have not hit a bottom in Charleston yet still does not mean there are not good purchase opportunities here locally," he adds.

Separately, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight in its most recent quarterly housing report found the Charleston area ranked 86th in terms of price appreciation at the end of September 2007 from the same period in 2006, up 4.1 percent. Prices rose a scant 0.01 percent in the third quarter. But Greater Charleston's five-year history is solid, up 58.32 percent. The Myrtle Beach area had the highest five-year increase in the state at 63.55 percent.

The federal housing office is in charge of oversight of the two major secondary mortgage investors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Green star

KB Home, a prominent builder locally, which has its state headquarters in the Charleston area, says from now on it will use only "Energy Star" qualified refrigerators, dishwashers and laundry appliances in its new homes.

The brands will be from Whirlpool Corp. Energy Star-qualified appliances use 10 percent to 50 percent less energy and water than standard models, according to KB Home. Energy Star is a conservation program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

Inspection detection

On the home inspection front, South Carolina could be considered a good news-bad news state. The good news is it is one of 32 states that regulate home inspections. The bad news is it ranked 28th out of those 32 in the quality of its regulations in 2007, says the Chicago-based American Society of Home Inspectors.

Louisiana, New Jersey and Arizona placed one, two and three as in past years. The states trailing South Carolina were Montana, North Dakota, Georgia and California.

In a release on the study, the society did not give specifics about why South Carolina finished so low. But it did note why states are marked down. Pennsylvania slid from fifth to near the bottom in one year because the state inspector experience requirement could not be enforced. California typically places last because it can't enforce the inspector code of ethics, among other things.

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com.