Its time for your May 2009 Tega Cay SC home sales report.

The data is for May 2009 single family home sales with a comparison to May 2008. The data is from the Charlotte MLS and the area is Tega Cay only which does not include communities like Baxter Village, Springfield, Knigthsbridge, and other Fort Mill communities.

May Tega Cay home sales increased in May from April. The number of homes sold in May 2009 was 7 compared to 4 homes sold in April.  Comparing May 2009 to May 2008, the quantity of homes sold was the same at 7. The average days a home is on the market has increased 139% from 51 days last year May to 122 days this year. The list price to sales price ratio is 95% of listed price. The average price of a home sold is $299,217.

There are currently 119 single family homes for sale in Tega Cay listed on the Charlotte MLS service.

Below is a spreadsheet summarizing the May 2009 to May 2008 Tega Cay homes sales comparison.

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

To discuss or for more information please contact me.

Carmen S Miller

Tega Cay Entrance Sign

Here is a single family homes sales report for the Tega Cay SC area.

The data is for April 2009 single family home sales with a comparison to April 2008. The data is from the Charlotte MLS and the area is Tega Cay not including Fort Mill, SC which includes communities like Baxter Village, Springfield, Knigthsbridge, and other Fort Mill communities.

In April 2009, 4 single family homes sold in Tega Cay compared to 9 sold in April 2008 which is an approx decrease of 56% from last year.  The average days a home is on the market has drastically decreased 64% to 56 days from 156 days. The sale price to listing price percent is at 94% of listing price. The average price of a home sold decreased 50% with average home price of $189,750.

There are currently 111 single family homes for sale listings in Tega Cay on the Charlotte MLS service.

Below is a spreadsheet summarizing the April 2009 to April 2008 Tega Cay homes sales comparison.

With the drastic reduction in the number of homes sold in Tega Cay I did more research on the home sold trends for Tega Cay. The highest amount of homes sold over the last 11 years in Tega Cay is 19 which occurred in April 2006. April 2009 is the lowest at 4 homes sold. The next lowest amount of homes sold in April was 2002 at 6 Tega Cay Homes.

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

To discuss or for more information please contact me.

Carmen S Miller

Here is a single family homes sales report for the Fort Mill SC area.

The data is for April 2009 single family home sales with a comparison to April 2008. The data is from the Charlotte MLS and the area is Fort Mill, SC which includes communities like Baxter Village, Springfield, Knigthsbridge, and other Fort Mill communities except for Tega Cay SC.

In April 2009, 27 single family homes sold in Fort Mill compared to 35 sold in April 2008 which is an approx decrease of 23%. The average days a home is on the market has increased 40% to 155 days. The sale price to listing price percent is at 96% of listing price.

There are currently 532 single family homes for sale listings in the Fort Mill area on the Charlotte MLS service. The listings count are for both York and Lancaster Counties of the Fort Mill Township. There are 348 active listings in the York County portion of Fort Mill.

All of the numbers are slightly better than I reported for March 2008 to 2009 Fort Mill real estate comparison.

Below is a spreadsheet summarizing the April 2009 to April 2008 Fort Mill homes sales comparison.

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

To discuss or for more information please contact me.

Carmen S Miller

I put together a single family homes sales report for the Fort Mill SC area for your review.

The data is for March 2009 single family home sales with a comparison to March 2008. The data is from the Charlotte MLS and the area is Fort Mill, SC which includes communities like Baxter Village, Springfield, Knigthsbridge, and other Fort Mill communities except for Tega Cay SC.

In March 2009, 21 single family homes sold in Fort Mill compared to 30 sold in March 2008 which is an approx decrease of 30%. The average days a home is on the market has increased 47% to 181 days. The sale price to listing price percent is at 95% of listing price.

There are currently 789 single family homes for sale listings in the Fort Mill area on the Charlotte MLS service.  581 are active listings in the combined York County and Lancaster County of the Fort Mill Township. There are 372 active listings in the York County portion of Fort Mill.

I put together a colorful spreadsheet below summarizing the March 2009 to March 2008 Fort Mill homes sales comparison.

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

To discuss or for more information please contact me.

Carmen S Miller

Home Prices in the Charlotte Metro which includes Fort Mill and York County SC fell 8.2% in January 2009 compared to a year ago according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller January 2009 Home Price Index report released Tuesday. Their report commentary was negative saying the market…

shows continued broad based declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States, with 13 of the 20 metro areas showing record rates of annual decline, and 14 reporting declines in excess of 10% versus January 2008.

The S&P/Case-Shiller went on to say in their report the January 2009 average home prices across the United States are at similar levels to what they were in late 2003.

The good news is Charlotte and Fort Mill home price decline was in the metro group with less than 10% declines. The Southwest saw home prices fall as much as 35% in Phoenix, 32.5 % in Las Vegas, and closer to home 14.3% in Atlanta.

Is the home price trend slowing? The home price decline for Charlotte and Fort Mill during the period of November 2008 to December 2008 was 2.6%. The decline from December 2008 to January 2009 was lower at 1.2%.

See S&P/Case-Shiller’s January 2009 homes sales index comparison below:

What features help sell your home faster? What features are more desirable to a buyer and bring you more bang for the buck?

The National Association of Realtors® gathered information from over 2500 home buyers nationally that purchased a home in 2007. Repeat buyers placed more importance than first-time buyers on almost all home features.

Here are some of the highlights of the survey:

• The most important feature was central air-conditioning. 74% of the respondents listed central air as very important.  A very important feature surviving the summers in Tega Cay, SC.    
• Next in line was a garage with 2 or more spaces.  This was the most significant change between the NAR’s 2004 survey to the 2007.

Other important features were:

• Walk-in closets in the master bedroom which was ranked higher by older buyers
• Backyard or play area which was more important to younger buyers
• Hardwood floors
• Granite countertops.
• Cable or satellite TV readiness.
• High-speed Internet access.

Respondents said they would pay more for a home that has:

• waterfront property, a no brainer for our area in my opinion.
• Oversized garages.
• Central Air.

 90 percent of the respondents said energy efficiency was important in a buying decision. I bet energy efficiency will now rank higher in future surveys.  

The typical home purchased during the survey period was 12 years old, 1,840

square feet in size, and had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The national median price was $205,000.

Other changes between the 2004 survey and 2007 are:

• The size of the typical home purchased increased by about 100 square feet.
• Over four-fifths are detached, single-family homes
• More than half are in the suburbs

 And what did buyers do once they moved in? Nearly half of home buyers remodeled or made improvements to their kitchen, and close to half remodeled or improved a bathroom.

Source: NAR’s Profile of Buyers’ Home Feature Preferences (2007)

The quick answer is yes. It seems to be a buyers market for home sales almost everywhere thanks to the media. The media pounds us everyday with bad news about the credit industry, foreclosures, high gas prices, the weak dollar, etc. Some of it is true and some is, well just over exaggerated to say it nicley. So most potential home buyers today think it is a buyers market no matter where they are looking. But we still have a lot of people looking at homes for sale in our area.

So as a potential home buyer in the York County or south Charlotte area what can you expect? Our area has not seen the double or triple digit increases in home values like Florida, northeast, and southwest part of the country in the last few years. Our home values have seen moderate growth. You can find many articles and reports on how our homes have held their values in the last few months. Homes are taking longer to sell today then last year.  If you are coming from one of the over inflated markets, low ball offers on solid (non foreclosures), well kept homes in our area will most likely cause the seller to not want to negotiate. If you want extreme bargains look for foreclosures.

If you are a seller, just putting a sign in your yard today won’t cut it like last year. You need to price your home for today’s market conditions. Many current real estate articles suggest pricing your home without negotiating wiggle room. Carmen can better assist you with your selling price strategy. Other selling tips include boosting your curb appeal. Click here to see Carmen’s tips and Century’s 21′s brochure for more curb appeal and home staging info. If your budget allows, invest in bigger improvements in the make or break it key rooms like the kitchen or bathrooms.

So to sum it up, don’t assume our area has gone completely cold and prices falling dramatically because of the negative national real estate news reports. If you would like to do your own market research, Carmen has a great tool called the MLS Market Snapshot (for Buyers and Sellers). The system is from a company called Top Producer. The MLS Market Snapshot tool searches current home sales and listings in a defined area and reports to you automatically on a monthly basis via email on the current trend. She probably does not want me to say this but she is paying for it and the report is absolutely free for you to use. Carmen has the MLS Snapshot tool on her blog and website.

The National Association of Realtors® announced in their latest homes sales forecast that existing home sales are projected to trend up in 2008 while recovery of new home sales is unlikely before 2009.

Click to read more of the NAR press release