WEEKLY MARKET PULSE
by Chris Sanders, Client Market Advisor
February 9, 2015
- WEBSITE SEARCH ACTIVITY GETTING HOTTER AND HOTTER: It is fairly common knowledge that most all buyers begin their quest for real estate on-line. By the time they are ready to tour a home, they have already done some homework, perused listing photos and flagged favorites. So it is encouraging any time we see real estate website search activity heat up. In the past we’ve seen January be a busy month for website searches and registered buyer leads followed by a drop off in February; however, during the first week of February 2015 there was actually a 30% increase in website visits and a solid 67% increase in registered leads on the COLLINS GROUP REALTY WEBSITE compared to the same time period in 2014.
- Last week was the third consecutive week with a HIGH VOLUME of pending sales, with 100 ratified contracts executed in our local real estate markets. The week was an especially strong week for villas, with contracts written on 23 villa listings, and 40% of these pending villa sales are located in Forest Beach.
- Although the number of new listings for “off island” homes remained nearly the same for the second consecutive week, the number of new listings for homes on the island increased last week by 57% when compared against the prior week. Sea Pines and Hilton Head Plantation were the two neighborhoods that introduced the majority of new island listings last week; however, they were also the two hottest markets for pending island home sales.
- And finally… HIGH END VILLA SALES are drawing attention, and both Sea Pines and Palmetto Dunes continue to have the stronghold on the luxury villa market. There are currently 16 villas for sale in the $1MM – $3MM price range. During the past year, there have been 14 sales in this same price category with an additional two pending sales. 57% of the high end villa sales during the past year have either been in Turtle Lane Club (Sea Pines) or Somerset Villas (Palmetto Dunes). Interestingly, nearly a third of the luxury villa activity (closed and pending sales) has taken place during the past 60 days!
As always, thank you for choosing Collins Group Realty as your local real estate resource. Our team of professionals is available for you 24/7, and we are always honored and appreciative when we receive your referrals. Please call us anytime we can be of service or research a specific property or area just for YOU!
Hilton Head office: 843-341-6300
Bluffton office: 843-837-6700
Visit our website: http://www.CollinsGroupRealty.com
Primary Data source: Hilton Head MLS (DATA IS BELIEVED TO BE ACCURATE BUT IS NOT GUARANTEED)