More Beaufort County homes are for sale. Why isn’t that helping home buyers?
Coming off the 2021 housing market frenzy, homebuyers may have hoped for less competition, especially to purchase a home under trees woven with Spanish moss and where open windows invite a sea breeze.
Beaufort County prospective buyers may have gotten their wish. According to the 2022 market report, released last week by the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors, pending sales and closed sales both were down from 2021. The number of homes for sale, or inventory, was up by 88.6%.
It doesn’t mean that homes on the market are less expensive. In reality, the Hilton Head area’s overall median sales price increased 18.3% to $485,000 from $411,016 for the year, according to the report.
“[The Hilton Head area data] includes anything sold through the Hilton Head MLS north and south of the Broad River,” Hilton Head Area Realtors CEO Jean Beck told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette previously. “The largest part is Hilton Head, Bluffton, Daufuskie and Hardeeville.”
Sales slow
Typically slowing sales in a market put buyers at an advantage.
“If there’s less people looking, then they have more to choose from, [and] they can be a little pickier,” Realtor Julie Timms said. “But if a seller doesn’t want to take less, they’re not going to.”
In the Hilton Head area, sellers still had an upper hand because of how in-demand the market is, despite sales slowing. And it showed in 2022: More than 99% of sellers received asking price for their home.
There were 7,347 closed sales in 2021, versus 5,747 in 2022, according to the report.
Closed sales mean the deal is finalized. A pending sale means the seller accepted an offer on a home, but property hasn’t been transferred to the new owner.
The Hilton Head area had 7,473 pending sales in 2021, versus 5,673 pending sales in 2022, according to the report.
“Hilton Head has been such a beautiful place for so many years, but it wasn’t discovered,” Timms said. “This is a great boutique market where people want to be. It’s gorgeous, and it’s really not like any other place.”
Why isn’t inventory helping with prices?
A 88.6% increase in inventory may sound like a big jump, but it’s not when the inventory was already low.
At the end of 2022, there were 977 active sales on the market versus 518 the previous year, according to the report.
Realtor Rick Saba said he was surprised by the percentage increase, but only at first.
“If you had said ‘Hey, is there a lot more inventory?’” Saba said. “I wouldn’t have thought the numbers would have been that high.”
The result is that, though there was a percentage increase in inventory, the actual number remains low, which makes the market competitive and doesn’t help homebuyers’ wallets.
