April 2025 continues the trend of a tale of two very different markets: single family homes and condos/townhomes. 

Condos/Townhomes:

We officially have more than 8 months of inventory for this property type listed in the Coastal Carolinas Multiple Listing Service. There were 3,325 condos or townhomes for sale in our market at the end of April. The last time we had that much inventory for condos and townhomes was September 2016 when we had 3,339 properties in this category for sale. Does this mean the sky is falling? Absolutely not. We didn’t think so then and we don’t think so now. What it does mean is that buyers have more options than they’ve had in a long time and sellers are competing for those buyers. The similarities with 2016 are uncanny: in March 2016, there were 447 sold condos/townhomes. Last month, there were 445. There’s one big difference: back then, the average cost of a condo/townhome was $140,759 and last month, the average price jumped from $251,367 all the way to $282,284. Does this mean price is no longer dictated by supply/demand? Not at all. Please read the end of the article for more info about the impact of Expired and Withdrawn Listings on our market. 

Single Family:

April 2025 was a continuation of a plateau in inventory with the same number of months supply as March 2025: 4.2. We’ve been hovering around 4 months of inventory since last April. After last month’s surge in new listings of previously owned homes (March added 892, the most added in history according to the CCMLS database), April 2025 said hold my beer and had the most new construction homes added to the market with 653. Our database goes back 2004. With so much inventory being added to the market, demand was pretty steady in order to keep the months supply equation even with March. The spring market demand is in effect with March ending with 1,085 properties under contract. 

Other factors: volatility in the stock market is doing a great job demonstrating real estate is a good investment. Investors from all over the country and world are shifting assets into real estate. The Grand Strand Market is one of the hottest and most reliable in the nation. Interest rates are holding steady too with the FED indicating they are keeping interest rates where they are for the near future. Do I think they’ll come down? Maybe- depends on government spending, inflation and tariff-led disruption to the economy. Will they eventually come down? Yes, but I wouldn’t wait on lower interest rates to buy. Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait.

Expired/Withdrawn Listings:

This is a phenomena that I’ve been tracking for the last few years. From January 1 to April 30 this year, 3,257 properties have expired or withdrawn from the market. That’s almost a 31% increase from last year’s total of the same time period (2,488). In 2023, there were 1,817 from January to April and in 2022 there were 1,278. This category of properties demonstrates sellers would rather not sell their property than lower their price. If that trend continues, at some point, market pressure will eventually overcome stubbornness. Or, some other market factor will increase demand or lower supply. In the meantime, I’ll continue to monitor this category. 

Here’s a short synopsis taken from other articles that helps us understand this category of properties:

Withdrawn properties in the MLS are properties pulled from the market before the listing agreement ended. This happens for a variety of reasons: their reason for selling changed (they didn’t get the job, they no longer need to move closer to parents, their child decided to stay home for college, etc). Sometimes, they fire their agent or just simply changed their mind about selling. They most likely reason someone removes their property from the market is they weren’t getting enough activity on their overpriced listing and pulled it. It doesn’t take long to realize you’ve overpriced your property when you aren’t getting any showings and you’re not in anyone’s Favorite carts and it’s not being shared (all data available). Many people try a high price, realize it’s not going to work and withdraw the listing. 

Expired properties are properties that were listed for the amount of time agreed to on the listing agreement (typically 6 months) and for whatever reason, it didn’t sell in that timeframe. This could happen for a number of reasons but the most common one by far is the property is overpriced. No amount of marketing or advertising can overcome a property that is significantly overpriced. Other things to consider with Expired properties are the agent could be poorly advising their client and poorly advertising their home.  With an online market that is leaving non-technical agents behind, some listings are expired because selling real estate today is impacted by algorithms and social media campaigns. If you’re wondering why I’m not talking about the condition of the home… that’s because price trumps and corrects the condition of the home 100% of the time. If you list your home at the market price, it will sell. 

What does all of this mean: It means buyers have a lot of options. For single family homes and condos, there’s new construction and previously owned properties. Buyers have time to look at properties and explore the area. For sellers, it means they should hire a trusted real estate advisor who is willing to educate them on price, condition and time when listing their property. Sellers should be prepared to wait longer, negotiate more on price and be open to terms buyers need along with negotiations and credits for repairs if they are a resale property competing with new construction. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if we can help. Adrianne, Lauren and I are would love to learn more about your goals so we can better understand how we can help you achieve them. We’re here to help!