2013 Year End State of the Real Estate Market - Hilton Head Island & Bluffton SC Jan. 2014 | Page 2

state of the hilton head island/bluffton market home & villa sales lot sales 700 2542 2352 612 600 2048 508 500 1782 1600 1588 400 1032 820 1001 845 370 299 300 226 204 200 545 511 100 0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Homes 2008 2013 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Villas Since bottoming out in 2008, the number of Home sales in our overall marketplace area has risen steadily over the past 5 years. Villas sales have nearly doubled since 2008, though the trend line shows more volatility than in Home sales. As the national market has heated up, we have seen more and more buyers being able to sell their properties elsewhere and invest in the HHI marketplace. Previously“anchored,”this large pool of buyers now finds themselves ready, willing AND able…and the strong performance of the stock market in 2013 has further fueled buyers to get off the fence and get involved in our market! Even more impressive than the steady increase of Home and Villa sales, Lot sales have actually TRIPLED SINCE 2008! Hardest hit by the burst of the housing bubble, the Lot market stagnated almost immediately, forcing prices down sharply to levels that were completely inconceivable during the real estate boom. Yet now, with the decline in available inventory of resale Homes, Lots are moving back on the radar…and new home construction is BACK. After a period of seemingly no new construction, there are new homes popping up in just about every segment of the market from the tip of the Island out to Sun City and beyond. So it is not surprising to see that the average sales price of Lots showed its first INCREASE in over 6 years, yielding an average sales price of $136,050 across the overall market area. average sales price $600,000 average days on market $500,000 $400,000 169 163 150 $300,000 140 136 143 146 153 152 151 133 115 $200,000 $100,000 $0 2008 2009 Homes 2010 2011 Villas 2012 2013 Lots What goes down, must go up! This is one of the “prettiest” graphs you will see in this report as it demonstrates a very clear and positive trend in the average selling prices of Homes, Villas and Lots in the greater HHI marketplace. While sometimes interpreted as an indicator that real estate values are on the rise, we are not quite to the point of making that universal statement. This increase in average selling price is just as much about the market experiencing an increase in higher-end sales as anything…but we ARE seeing pockets of price appreciation in the market. In regard to the return of price appreciation, I like to use the analogy of rye-grass seed. You can spread it evenly across a yard, and there will always be some areas (ie., pockets) that pop up grass first. For whatever reason those first pockets had the benefit of factors that enabled faster growth (ie., more sun, more water…or, pent-up buyer demand, more affordable price-points, etc.), yet you know that the seeds are planted for that kind of growth across the balance of the market in time. I, for one, can hardly wait… 2008 2009 2010 Homes 2011 2012 2013 Villas For sellers, there is nothing worse than having your property sit on the market for an extended period of time. Buyers wonder if there is something wrong with the property, while sellers wonder if their property is even saleable at all. Well, the good news today is that the average time for Homes and Villas to sell is on the decline! While not down sharply, the trend is clear, and I fully expect it to continue through 2014. In many ways a function of the lower inventory of property for sale, buyers now see/understand/realize that they don’t have “all day” to make an offer on real estate. Some properties sell in a matter of 1-2 days, and the era of buyers having the luxury of time is coming to a close. This helps make the market more healthy for all involved, and it is a key ingredient in returning to a seller’s market.