Housing Market Predictions for 2021: South Carolina

We wanted to share a recent Forbes article that is well-written and does a great job of explaining where the housing market is now, how we got here, and where it looks to be going. We’ve also included the local housing market forecast for Charleston South Carolina.

To summarize, we had a low inventory of homes before the pandemic and then the combination of increased demand and low interest rates have depleted inventory further. If you have been looking for homes over the last 6 months, you’ve seen the 15% or higher appreciation and how quickly homes are selling, but this rate seems to be at least slowing down a little over the last three months.

No one knows exactly how the market will behave, but this trend seems to be mostly driven by an imbalance between supply and demand. Sellers are not worried about selling their houses but are reluctant to sell because they aren’t certain they can find and win the bid for the house they want to buy. If sales slow just a little, we could see better inventory and more regular terms for home purchases. The demand will continue to be high for Charleston because so many buyers are moving to the Charleston Metro area, and new construction builds will not keep pace with the increased demand. In short, local experts don’t foresee a bubble or crash, but we should hopefully see a return to a more balanced and regular paced market. This is good news because the historically imbalanced market we’ve been working with has been tough especially for buyers who are financing and competing against cash buyers willing to forego all contingencies.

In my opinion, the best thing buyers can do who have the time to wait is to keep a close eye on the market while getting their finances in order. Interest rates should go up in the next year, and being ready to purchase in 2022 when there are more homes available to buy (but before rates go up) would be ideal.

Here is the Forbes article so you can see more details!