This April has been the busiest sales month I've had personally in years - 8 new sales worth well over $2 million. Even more amazing is that they were all condos and 6 of the 8 were financed purchases. Lenders are finally lining up to finance condos again. For more details, check out the article in this newsletter.

Last month I wrote about how surprisingly affordable the luxury North Beach condos are because of their high rental incomes and the current low interest rates. The fact is that there are a number of condos that are producing exceptionally high returns for resort properties. For more details, see the article below.

I've mentioned before how the downtown Myrtle Beach area is changing. If you haven't visited this area in recent years, you will be amazed. The following editorial in The Sun News gives an excellent overview. "MB's Downtown Phoenix"

And finally, summing this month's comments up on a couple of fun notes, the Coastal Uncorked Food and Wine Festival was this past week - new events, different venue - and the new owners of the Myrtle Beach Speedway are now offering racing experiences to the public.  "Coastal Uncorked to make MB Downtown Debut", "NASCAR Racing Experience Debut"

Hope to see you at the beach soon!

Below are links to several detailed reports on the current state of our local real estate market complete with statistics for just about anything imaginable.  Please keep in mind that these statistics cover a broad range of properties and that particular areas or developments may behave quite differently.  

Here are a few of my observations:

In March there were double digit increases in sales for homes and condos for 2012 over 2011 accompanied by double digit decreases in new listings.

"Best 1st quarter (# of sales) along the Grand Strand since 2007."

The average % of sale price to list price continues to hover around 93% to 94%.  I've seen the same percentage reported nationwide.  In other words, most of the price-dampening effect of distress sales is already incorporated into the asking price for listings that are priced at "market" value (These are the listings that are receiving offers and actually selling).