The city of Charleston’s Design Review Board approved guidelines for a proposed overhaul of Citadel Mall into the mixed-use “Epic Center” concept with greenspace, entertainment, retail and housing.
When transformed, the Epic Center project could have more than 4 million square feet of mixed uses, including offices, medical facilities, meeting spaces, residences, restaurants and a world-class sports facility, according to Citadel Mall’s lead investor Richard Davis.
Futuristic plans show large-scale development around the mall with multistory buildings and a mix of uses. The development is projected to begin in 2025.
NEW SALES – Pending (Ratified contracts) – New Written sales, a predictor of future closed sales, were down market wide -1% in September of ’24 versus September of ’23. However, last week 255 properties went under contract market wide, +3% from the same week last year. This is a strong and seasonally appropriate number.
CLOSED SALES – Year To date closed sales were at 13,390 at the end of September 2024. A very small difference from the 13,438 at the same time in 2023.
Third Quarter of 2024 closed sales were at 4,396, which is down 3 percent from 2023 (which had 4,510). As a reference, there were 5018 closed sales in 2022.
There were 1,254 closed sales in September 2024 which is down 11 percent from the 1,411 that we saw in September of 2023. Again, as a reference, there were 1,573 closed sales in September of 2022
SALES PRICE – The Median sale price closed out at $409,085 in September 2024. The Charleston market continues to stay in a tight band between $400k and $425k where it has been for most of the last 27+ months. The average sales price was $627,254 in September 2024.
AVERAGE SOLD PRICE PER SQFT
The median sales price has remained in a tight band but the average price per sqft remains near an all-time high, well above one year ago. Consumers are getting a smaller house for the money. Essentially, homes are continuing to appreciate despite a stable Median Sale Price.
INVENTORY – Approximately 2,000 new listings came online in September 2024, well ahead of last year’s number. Median Days on market was 26.
Inventory was at approximately 4,200 listings in September 2024. While this level of inventory is a significant increase, the gap between the number of listings available for sale and the number of listings needed to maintain a balanced market is still substantial. See chart below. We need approximately 2,100 additional listings market wide to achieve a balanced market (5 months of inventory)
The Charleston market has about ten weeks of inventory as a whole – this can vary by price range and specific location. The most active areas have inventory levels in the 6-10 week range.
NEW CONSTRUCTION – New construction represents 45% of all pending contracts in the MLS and new construction comprises about 36% of the closings.
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College Park Rd – Berkeley Farms Rd – Goose Creek City Council voted to annex 11 parcels of land totaling 36.25 acres on College Park Road and Berkeley Farms Road. The development plan will include single-family detached dwelling units as well as some multi-family units with 5 acres designated for open space with connected trails and walking paths.
Windsor Mill Road and Goose Greek Boulevard (Hwy 52) – Developers plan to transform this vacant corner into a mixed-use development. SoLiv at Goose Creek plans to encompass 30 acres, with the land assembled from multiple parties organized by a local developer. The preliminary plans consist of 42,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, with 130 active adult residential units and 300 multifamily units.
A Berkeley County property owner can peek through a stand of trees across the road and see part of Cane Bay Plantation. The other side of his land overlooks 1,700 acres of undeveloped land where Seattle-based Weyerhaeuser, the nation’s largest timber tract owner, wants to build another large-scale residential project.
Mr. Burbage Smoak’s property along the heavily traveled, two-lane Black Tom Road stands in the way of any plans Weyerhaeuser might have and Berkeley County Council appears determined to keep it that way.
Smoak’s vacant property includes 421 acres southwest of Moncks Corner, most of it is wetlands. However, He wants to build a strip of commercial buildings on 80 acres that front Black Tom Road — maybe some medical offices or retail space, something that will “support the residents of that area,” according to Kevin Berry, president of Earthsource Engineering, who is representing the landowner.
“We’re not just trying to put more residential rooftops in the area,” he said, adding he’s keenly aware of county council’s desire to slow residential growth so new roads and other critical infrastructure can catch up.
“The public sentiment, and they’ve articulated it well, is there’s frustration when development comes before infrastructure,” said county supervisor Johnny Cribb.
South Carolina is among a handful of Sunbelt states where growth is pulling away from the rest of the country, and one of the region’s top economists says there doesn’t seem to be anything on the horizon to stem the acceleration.
“I don’t see anything in the data that makes me think that growth in the Carolinas, in particular, is going to slow down,” Laura Ullrich, a Charlotte-based economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said during the S.C. International Trade Conference on the Isle of Palms.
The lures that have drawn newcomers from other states — jobs, weather and relatively lower costs — aren’t going to change, Ullrich said. Already, South Carolina ranks as the nation’s fastest-growing state percentagewise, with 1.7 percent growth in 2023, according to census data. That’s nearly 91,000 more people than the previous year, with roughly 19,000 of them moving to the three-county Charleston region.
“And, quite frankly, we still have several mid-sized metros that have a lot of growing to do,” Ullrich said
“If you live in Charleston, things seem super expensive here,” she said. “But it’s a lot cheaper than a house in Fairfax County, Virginia, and a heck of a lot cheaper than San Diego. So, if you look at the areas where that migration is coming from, they are very expensive. Yes, it’s expensive to buy a house in Mount Pleasant. But if you move from San Diego, you might buy a house in Mount Pleasant and another on Lake Murray.”
At the same time, wages are often much lower in South Carolina, and that can amplify the housing crisis regardless of cost comparisons.
“Everybody is worried about housing,” Ullrich said. “The only ways to fix it are, basically, subsidies and density. And people don’t want to talk about density. It’s really hard because everyone wants affordable housing but when density is going up down the road, people complain to their city, and they don’t do it.”
There are a few intangible variables that could crimp growth, such as rising geopolitical tensions or a surprise event that no one can forecast. But Ullrich said the biggest question is how quickly the Fed will lower interest rates going forward.
“Is it going to be an elevator or slow stair steps?” she said.
The answer could go a long way in determining how the housing crisis — both affordability and availability — shakes out in the Charleston region and throughout the Sunbelt.
A Charleston real estate firm has big plans for an aging shopping center on Ashley Phosphate Road, transforming it into a future destination for family entertainment, shopping and dining. Woodlock Capital is thinking along the lines of Mount Pleasant Towne Centre — if all goes according to plans.
To move the vision forward, the firm has purchased Festival Centre in North Charleston for $21.75 million — its largest acquisition to date. The anchor tenant, an entertainment venue, is already locked in to bring the concept to life.
The high-profile 325,347-square-foot retail property is at 5101 Ashley Phosphate Road in Dorchester County. Plans include mini golf, go-karts, arcade games as well as additional restaurants, coffee shops, apparel stores and pickleball venues that will further drive traffic.
Charleston’s city housing authority plans to demolish and redevelop the Meeting Street Manor Extension public housing complex and has chosen a team for the job.
It’s a significant part of a larger plan to remake nearly 16 acres of the upper peninsula and add nearly 1,100 apartments to the area.
The big-picture plan calls for replacing existing low-income housing with a larger number of new apartments serving that population, plus many hundreds of workforce housing apartments for people with moderate incomes, and hundreds more for those with higher incomes.
Developers will provide the financing and handle the redevelopment, while the Housing Authority will continue to own the land.
The more than $90 million plan to redevelop the 44-unit Meeting Street Manor Extension complex calls for 230 apartments, amenities for residents, an internal 256-space parking garage and 13,500 square feet of retail space in new buildings on Meeting Street.
More townhomes are headed to Point Hope, the master-planned community minutes from Daniel Island. Construction of Berkshire on Clements Ferry, a 47-acre development, kicked off on Aug. 19.
The project will comprise 192 three-bedroom, 3½-bathroom rental townhome units. The residences will be divided into 36 three-story buildings arranged in six pods.
Located behind City Hall beside the Recreation Complex, the new Joseph S. Daning Amphitheater opens Sept. 6, 2024.
With exciting amenities including a food truck court, eat-in pavilion, stage-front dance floor, public restroom facility, and lakeside views, the Amphitheater encourages people to gather as a community and enjoy a variety of public performances.
SmartAsset examined the latest IRS data to find where households earning $200,000 annually or more are moving.
North Carolina and South Carolina ranked third and fourth for most high-earning households moving in, with a net gain of 5,792 and 5,270 households, respectively. The average household income of high-earning households moving in is $456,000 for North Carolina and $501,000 for South Carolina.
Real Estate Matters in Charleston SC - Gena Glaze 