Strand becomes buyer's market for home hunt

If you'd like to buy a home, it's a good time to look.

Right now, sales have slowed as they always do in the fall on the Grand Strand, and inventory has picked up, giving buyers the chance to mull through property and take the time they need to make that emotional purchase decision. Plus, prices have stabilized somewhat and aren't rising month to month as they did earlier in the year, analysts say.

This October, 421 single-family homes sold compared with 419 in the same period last year. Also this October, 466 condos sold compared with 575 last October.

That's a drop from an active September this year when the market saw sales of 626 homes and 722 condos.

"Prices have stabilized a little bit, so buyers are not having to worry about coming back a month from now and having to pay that much more. It's a positive environment for purchasing. And there's more to choose from," said Tom Maeser, market analyst and president of the Fortune Academy of Real Estate.

Interest rates have been ticking up as the Federal Reserve, still concerned about inflation, raised the federal funds rate - the overnight interest banks charge each other - Tuesday to 4 percent. That's the highest level in more than four years, the Fed and signaled more increases are likely.

Higher interest rates fight inflation by slowing economic activity. The higher rates dampen consumer demand for items such as autos and homes and raise the cost of borrowing for businesses.

Still, 30-year mortgage interest rates remain historically low. And though such rate increases will squeeze the pocketbooks of first-time home buyers, they won't slow sales much, Maeser said.

Rising interest rates are also likely to motivate buyers to purchase sooner.

Real estate agents generally see the local market slow in October and November and then pick up dramatically in December.

Last year, 384 homes and 509 condos were sold in November. In December, 795 homes and 990 condos were sold.

"Everybody wants to close before the end of the year. The way our tax laws are structured, there's benefits to closing in that year," said Karen Panko, real estate agent with ReMax Ocean Forest.

For this reason, buyers who come in the winter usually are serious about purchasing.

"They didn't come here in December to swim in the ocean," Panko said.

While the overall market slows in the fall, work picks up for real estate agent Mary Beth Mabry with Weichert Seaside Properties, who works mostly with investors.

Investors can more easily tour property in the fall because it's free of tourists. Plus, more properties are on the market than in the summer, when it's key rental time.

"You can't sell people what you don't have," Mabry said.

Third-quarter statistics revealed inventory increased 20 percent for homes and 114 percent for condos after a period of an extremely low number of listings.

Median prices jumped 20 percent for single-family homes from last October to this October from $161,030 to $192,550. Median price for condos jumped 28 percent from $130,500 to $166,750 for the same period.

Because these numbers only reflect sales that closed in October, that one-month year-to-year snapshot doesn't reflect overall appreciation. That's because the numbers could be skewed if several very expensive homes happened to close in October, Maeser said.

For the year, Maeser expects to see a yearly median price increase of somewhere between 10 percent and 12 percent.

The amount of time that property sits on the market - generally a barometer for demand - increased slightly from last October, from 93 days to 127 days for homes and 74 to 77 days for condos.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.