South Carolina Mortgage Activity Picks Up in Myrtle Beach, Grand Strand
While the Grand Strand region of the South Carolina housing market is seeing quarter-over-quarter price declines, the lower-end market for existing single-family homes appreciated about 5.9 percent.
According to the Myrtle Beach Sun-News, that rate of appreciation places Myrtle Beach and vicinity fourth in the nation in between the second quarter 2006 and third quarter 2006.
Only Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., Wenatchee, Wash., and Longview, Wash., had higher quarterly price appreciation out of 275 metropolitan areas, a third quarter report by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) showed.
The government agency tracks existing home sales through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so the data only include single-family homes with loans under $417,000. The Strand’s quarterly price decline for resale single-family homes is for the entire market.
Andrew Leventis, an economist at the federal agency, said the disparity between the drop in resale single-family home prices and the federal numbers is the sale of high-end homes - above $400,000 - which are showing more softening than the lower end.
Mark Vitner, an economist at Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C., said that fewer high-priced homes are selling. Nationally, the report shows home mortgage loan applications and the housing market continuing to slow. Prices increased 0.86 percent between the second quarter and third quarter, the lowest increase since 1998.
The agency’s year-over-year price appreciation ranked Myrtle Beach sixth in the nation with a 21.7 percent increase. Leventis said he’s been impressed by Myrtle Beach’s prices outperforming those in the rest of the Palmetto State as South Carolina mortgage demand remains strong locally.
He said Myrtle Beach is the only city where that’s happening in the U.S. - where one city has much higher appreciation than the state average or other cities in that state. Wilmington, N.C, was listed 13th in the ranking with a year-over-year appreciation of 19 percent.