Real Estate Columbia, SC

Apr

24

Home Values

Posted by mcorral under For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

Many people ask me, how are the house values here in Columbia, SC. Certainley the real estate market has seen a HUGE shift here locally, but what about home values?

Well, lets look at supply and demand, these are the two variables that determine the value of your home. A good analgy is to look at something simple, say milk. When the amount of milk available increases, what happens to the price? It goes down. When there isn’t a lot of milk available, price goes up!

You may have a misconception that just because time goes by, the value of your home goes up. Not in this market. Supply has gone up as demand has done down. Therefore, price HAS to come down.

Wow what a depressing blog huh? Well not really. There is a sliver lining. There is no doubt you are going to “lose” money on the sale of your home. If you think otherwise, you are in denial. BUT, you will most certainly gain that money back and then some when you buy your new home, especially if you are moving up in price range. Not to mention interest rates at a 40 year low, this IS the time to buy, sell, or invest in real estate.

I am your local source for real estate information. Please contact me for anything real estate related.

For a free no-obligation market anaylsis click here and this will take you to my website. If you want to start your search for a new home click here.

Mark Corral

Keller Williams Realty

803.238.0420 cell

Apr

21

Real Estate update for Lake Carolina Subdivision

Posted by mcorral under For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

The market picks up speed this week in Lake Carolina! Out of around 170 homes for sale in the neighborhood, 8 went under contract last week. Doesn’t seem like alot, I know, but it is the most we have seen in months! There were also 8 new listings that entered the market last week.

Of the homes that went under contract, the average list price was 210,000 The average days on market was 113, while the average price per square foot was $86. Only 1 of these are “re-sales”, the rest were bank owned or new homes. Of the 8 new listings, the average list price was $288,000 and the average price per square foot was $110.

This is a reaccuring theme in Lake Carolina. New listings are almost always more per square foot than the ones selling. Why? Home owners want to “test” the market. Righfully so, everyone wants top dollar for their home. The reverse happens however, because the longer a home is on the market the lower it usually sells for.

The homes that are selling right now are the “best buys”. The ones that are not selling are the ones price at or over market value. This is a buyers market still. However, if the market looks like this every week in Lake Carolina, we will soon be out of this market.

For more information about buying or selling a home, visit www.markcorral.com

To search Lake Carolina homes for sale click here

Mark Corral

Keller Williams Realty

803.238.0420 cell

Apr

13

Lake Carolina, SC Real Estate update

Posted by mcorral under For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

Lake Carolina real estate was pretty slow over the past week. There were 5 new listings to come on the market. Only 2 homes went under contract, and another 2 homes closed. One of those that closed happen to be a property I sold. The sellers are very happy to have been able to sell their home given current conditions.

The current inventory in Lake Carolina is 176 active homes for sale. There has been 32 homes sold in the past 3 months in the neighborhood, over 50% of those being new, and about 15% being forclosures.

This equates to a 16 month inventory, which simply means for all the inventory to sell in lake carolina, it would take 16 months. This is down from this point last year, on a positive note.

If you would like to search for homes in lake carolina click here.

To find the value of your lake carolina home or any other home, click here.

Please come back for more!!

Mark Corral

Keller Williams Realty

803.238.0420 cell

mcorral@kw.com email

www.markcorral.com website

Neighborhood County or City Zip code or address School District

Mar

30

Home search in Columbia, SC

Posted by mcorral under For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

Are you tired of having to register on websites just to look for homes? Want to search for real estate without the hassle of an agent? You have come to the right place. Search all the lisitngs in Columbia, SC and surrounding areas without giving out your personal information

Search homes for sale, real estate and houses throughout greater Columbia, SC, including

Richland county, Lexington County, Kershaw county, and all of the midlands of South Carolina.

Click any of the following links to start your home search:

Northeast Columbia Blythewood Lugoff Elgin Camden
Cayce/West Columbia Chapin Lexington Irmo/St. Andrews

Or search by:

Mar

30

Lake Carolina Real Estate update

Posted by mcorral under Fave Neighborhood, For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

Last week 12 new listings entered the market in the Lake Carolina subdivision. 4 homes went under contract and 4 homes closed. Out of the 4 homes that closed 2 were under 150,000, and the other two were between 250-275k. All 4 homes were new construction. Out of the 4 that went under contract, however; only 1 was new construction. The rest were re-sells.

There is no doubt that home values are still declining. There are signs that house values will stabilize this year though. More first time home-buyers are entering the market with the new $8000 tax credit being offered with no repayment. These first time home-buyers typically buy up to 200k. Those sellers are in turn buying in the 200-300 range. This will hopefully begin to trickle up and help ultimately stabilize the value of your home.

For information about the value of your home, or to search for homes in Lake Carolina or Columbia visit my website at www.markcorral.com

OR

Search homes for sale, real estate and houses throughout greater Columbia, including
Richland county, Lexington County, Kershaw county, and all of the midlands of South Carolina.

Click any of the following links to start your home search:

Northeast Columbia Blythewood Lugoff Elgin Camden
Cayce/West Columbia Chapin Lexington Irmo/St. Andrews

Thanks and come back soon.

Mark Corral

Keller Williams Realty

803.238.0420

Mar

16

Lake Carolina Real Estate Update

Posted by mcorral under Fave Neighborhood, For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

Real estate in Lake Carolina had a not so bad week last week. 4 homes went under contract at an average list price of 243,000. Another 3 homes closed this past week at an average sold price of 225,000. This may not sound like a whole lot, but there were only 3 new listings that came on the market.

Again, looking at supply vs. demand; demand (sales) out weighed new supply (new listings). The more weeks like this the better for house values in Lake Carolina. Check back for more updates.

For a free, no obligation market analysis for the value of your home, click here

Also, you can click here to search all the homes for sale in Lake Carolina.

If you ever need me, I am a phone call, email, or a text away!

Mark Corral

Keller Williams Realty

803-238-0420 cell

mcorral@kw.com email

Mar

12

Home values in Lake Carolina

Posted by mcorral under Fave Neighborhood, For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

Are house values in Lake Carolina increasing or decreasing?

Real Estate in Lake Carolina as of late have been very tough for sellers. The best way to look at, is to first look at the law of supply vs. demand. Real estate is like any other market. The value of your home is based on how much supply is out there and how much demand to support it. Lake Carolina’s real estate supply has has gone up over the past few years.

Sales(demand) has gone down 24% year over year (’07-’08), and has gone down 40% versus this time last year. The positive note is that inventory has come down slightly over the past year, around 7%.

To answer my question; yes, home values are slightly decreasing in Lake Carolina. Never something homeowners want to hear. So if you don’t have to sell, DON’T. If you do, make sure you select a Realtor who knows the market.

Visit my website for a free, no obligation market analysis on your home, www.markcorral.com

You can also reach me at mcorral@kw.com

Come back soon.

Mark Corral

Realtor

Keller Williams Realty

803.238.0420 cell

Mar

2

Is it worth the price?

Posted by mcorral under For Buyers, For Sellers, General Information

I am asked quite often, “Mark, is this house worth what their asking?”

When you are working with a Realtor, it’s important to know how knowledgable they are or are not. You may end up paying more than what the house is worth. The worse part is, you may never know exactly how much you overpaid for the house. Here are a couple of tips when trying to determine if the house you like is worth the money:

1) How long has it been on the market at the current asking price?

Always compare to the local market statistics. When a home has been at the same asking price for an extended period of time, it is a good indication that it is not worth what their asking. If it was, it would have already sold. For our local market, the very best homes at the best price will sell within 30 to 60 days.

2) What is the competition?

Compare homes that are most like the subject property that have sold only in the past 90 days. In our ever shifting market, 6-12 months ago does not matter a bit. Only use comparables that have sold in previous 90 days.

For more information about buying a home, please visit my website, www.markcorral.com

Your in success,

Mark Corral

Keller Williams Realty

803-238-0420 direct

mcorral@kw.com email