February numbers out last week from the National Association of Realtors show the worst home sales in nine years. According to the report, signings dropped 10.9 percent in the Northeast.
The main factors? Everything from unemployment, tighter lending requirements for those applying for mortgages, and record numbers of short sales and foreclosures are making the buyer's market a limited one.
Nationally, short sales attribute to 40 percent of homes for sale.
Along the Grand Strand, short sales and foreclosures are playing a major factor in the market. They are mainly impacting the second property, or investment homeowners, according to the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors statistical analyst, Tom Maeser.
"With typically 2, 3 bedroom condo units... we're looking at 14 percent (that )are short sale, but about 23% are foreclosures. So that's 37 percent of all home sales," Maeser says.
A short sale situation occurs when a homeowner can't pay what's owed on a mortgage, and the bank agrees to sell the property at a loss to avoid foreclosing on the property. The sale process for a buyer is anything but short. Maeser says it can often take up to four or six months to close on a short sale. The seller also incurs taxes on the property.
Maeser says the multiple listing database has approximately 6,000 properties listed in Horry and Georgetown Counties. Six years ago, during the areas housing boom, Maeser says there was easily double that many properties.
It's the short sales and foreclosures, he says, that are limiting the market.
