Sea Pines Plantation 2013 Year End State of the Market Report Jan. 2014 | Page 4
STATE OF THE HILTON HEAD ISLAND/BLUFFTON MARKET
HOME & VILLA SALES
LOT SALES
700
2542
612
2352
600
2048
1782
508
500
1600
1588
400
1032
820
1001
845
226
204
200
545
511
370
299
300
100
0
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Homes
2013
2008
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
AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET
$500,000
$400,000
169
163
153
150
$300,000
140
136
143
152
146
151
133
$200,000
115
$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 o