| Wednesday, February 07, 2007 |
| Myrtle Beach Real Estate Sales News |
According to our resident real estate expert at the Sun News, Jenny Burns, our real estate agents are seeing an increase in sales interest from January. My clients and websites are reflecting that as well.
Sales of Myrtle Beach condominiums are still low, but that is to be expected until the glut of building and large amount of available new condos is taken care of.
Myrtle Beach condo rentals are at an all-time high. My friends at Condolux had the best year ever in 2006, and are geared up for 2007 with about 10 new projects to add to their rental lists...from Kingston Plantation (seemingly the hottest place down here for rentals) to the recently completed resorts like Bay View Resort in Myrtle Beach.
This could very well translate into a better environment for sales...and certainly more traffic to the condos that have on-site sales offices.
According to Jenny, new homes sales fell more than the prophets expected it to. I guess even though they "created" the bubble in the first place, they aren't always powerful enough to control the market just by the word of their predictions. And yes, I said they created the bubble. I am firmly convinced that it never would have happened anywhere if they hadn't kept screaming about it ad nauseum for the whole year that sales were so high. It was a self-fulfilled prophecy.
They report that single family home sales fell 24 percent to 296 from 389 last January. Sales of condos in Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand fell 35 percent to 276 units from 425. This according to the local MLS people.
It was also noted that some home prices dropped, but CONDO prices jumped 32 percent in average and 25 percent in median.
Days it takes to sell a condo increased from 160 to 345 days, while homes seem to sell much faster...only increasing to 160 from 143.
My friend Diann Tonnesen in Las Vegas predicted the turn around to take about 17 months from last summer. She's been in the business for more than 20 years, so I value her opinion. My group around here are perhaps a bit more optimistic. Myrtle Beach real estate sales tend to run much differently than some place like Las Vegas...or even the Florida beaches.
Also, our insurance crisis on condos is so in the news that I think buyers are waiting to see how that turns out. I'm seeing the leads and the interest, but there is more hesitation to buy unless they are looking for a personal vacation condo and feel like they can handle the price. And with rentals being so good, perhaps they can increase the price for them to help assuage the extra costs for HOA and insurance fees. People are going to come and vacation at Myrtle Beach regardless. It may slow down the spring breakers (no loss there) and maybe limit the number of days people stay. Perhaps in the future these condo rental places may need to make an availability for 3-4 day stays instead of requiring a weekly deal.
At any rate, it's very heartening to see more leads coming in and the various real estate websites doing well. Since I do real estate marketing, I appreciate it!
 Labels: condos, condos for sale, myrtle beach condo rentals, myrtle beach condos, myrtle beach homes, myrtle beach real estate, new condos, preconstruction condos, real estate marketing |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 2:55 PM  
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| Sunday, March 12, 2006 |
| Legislators seek looser coastal regulations |
Recent news story about The Prince Resort at the Cherry Grove Pier Project...
March 12. 2006 12:45PM
The Associated Press
Critics say legislators trying to help a condominium project add a pool to their beachfront project could undo nearly two decades of regulations intended to limit development and protecting public beach access.
Rep. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville; Rep. Bill Witherspoon, R-Conway and Rep. Nelson Hardwick, R-Surfside Beach are pushing a bill to allow the project to have an aboveground pool at a 17-story condominium project at the Cherry Grove fishing pier in North Myrtle Beach.
People buying the north myrtle beach condos have been told pools will be part of the project. But the pool would be on the ocean side of a line where building is restricted.
"This may be the only place in Horry County that would ever need this," Hardwick said. "We're just trying to accommodate an old family that is doing a project."
Elizabeth Hagood, chairwoman of the Department of Health and Environmental Control board, says that's the wrong reason to change the law. A House subcommittee is scheduled to debate the legislation Tuesday.
"Clearly, there is no overwhelming public need for this," she said. "This is for special interests."
The state's 1988 beach management act strictly limits what can be built close to the ocean.
South Carolina has learned lessons about building too close to the surf and should not change the 1988 law now, says Bill Eiser, a DHEC coastal regulator.
"It doesn't make sense from a long-term management strategy to allow something to go closer to the beach than what we've been doing," Eiser said.
Those 1988 limits were set after unusually high tides on Jan. 1, 1987, washed out dozens of pools and decks from Myrtle Beach to Charleston and brought millions of dollars in damage. The law was intended to move new development back from the seashore.
Pools that remain from before the change now jut onto the beach at Garden City and elsewhere, forcing governments to spend millions to widen beaches and prevent waves from slamming seawalls and pool decks at high tide.
The change Hardwick and others want could allow more new oceanfront pools and that could block public access at high tide and make erosion worse, critics say.
The push for the change comes as DHEC sees its coastal regulations under attack elsewhere:
- Legislators want DHEC to process permits faster. Loftis says the agency is too slow and is seeking a Legislative Audit Council review of DHEC's permitting process.
- A carefully crafted agreement between real-estate agents and conservationists to protect isolated wetlands by requiring permits to fill them could unravel after legislators questioned it last week.
- The Legislature may reject rules limiting construction of bridges to salt marsh islands, mostly in Charleston and Beaufort counties.
Hagood, a conservationist, is worried about the new pressure from the Legislature as coastal growth continues and development pressures rise.
"We have special interests trying to infiltrate and undermine our coastal zone program," Hagood said. "It is driven by money and greed. It is not driven out of the desire to protect the public interest or our natural resources."
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Note: Not so. The Prince Resort Myrtle Beach will be the best thing that ever happened to Cherry Grove Beach and will turn the whole section around from the run-down look it's always had. The Cherry Grove Pier is probably the only reason Cherry Grove even has tourists. A pool won't change anything that isn't already there. This is one of the finest North Myrtle Beach condo developments ever designed.Labels: condos for sale, myrtle beach condos, new condos, prince resort myrtle beach |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 6:43 PM
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| Thursday, October 20, 2005 |
| Special report: Boom or bubble? |
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
By PRASHANT GOPAL
STAFF WRITER
Houman Sarmasti took up a new hobby a few years ago: flipping real estate.
Sarmasti began putting down deposits on condos and town houses before they were built and then cashed them out as their value appreciated. The 33-year-old electronics distributor says he has pocketed more than $160,000 by buying and quickly reselling homes in Teaneck, Edgewater and Cocoa Beach, Fla.
He recently put a deposit on a $399,000 condo at the planned Grand Cascades Lodge condo-hotel, part of the Crystal Springs golf resort in Sussex County. Sarmasti isn't sure whether he'll flip the new condo or keep it as a weekend retreat, but he's confident things will work out fine.
"I don't see how you can lose money," he says. "You might not gain a lot, but I don't think you can lose, especially the way real estate is going."
That faith in real estate values has convinced an ever-growing number of homeowners that one home is just not enough. And this surge in second-home purchases is helping to pace the real estate boom, while raising concerns about a bubble nearing the bursting point.
More than one-third of all American homes purchased in 2004 were for investment or vacation purposes, according to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors.
And buyers are increasingly taking on debt for the properties. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who has warned of "froth in certain housing markets," noted last month that "mortgage originations for second-home purchases rose from 7 percent of total purchase originations in 2000 to twice that at the end of last year."
There is evidence the trend is especially strong in New Jersey, with its wealth and vacation destinations. In Atlantic and Cape May counties, about 38 percent of mortgages this year were for second homes, according to LoanPerformance, a subsidiary of First American Real Estate Solutions. Only Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Naples, Fla., have a higher percentage of second mortgages, the company says.....MORE
Myrtle Beach condos for saleLabels: new condos, real estate bubble, second homes, vacation real estate |
posted by Myrtle Beach Web Design @ 3:38 AM
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