Myrtle Beach single-family home values grow in 2Q

Myrtle Beach ranks 11th in the nation in one-year price appreciation for single-family homes, according to a study by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Single-family homes appreciated year over year by 23.8 percent in the second quarter.

Myrtle Beach also topped the nation in quarterly price growth - ranking third in appreciation between the first quarter and second quarters of 2006 with a 6 percent increase. Only Bend, Ore., and Grand Junction, Colo., were higher.

• The metropolitan statistical area of Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach hasn’t ranked in the nation’s Top 20 for appreciation since 1997, said Andrew Leventis, economist with the Office of Federal Housing.

• “It means that the super high end of the U.S. real estate market - the cities that have had tremendous high appreciation rates - are starting to come down. And places like Myrtle Beach appear to be continuing on,” Leventis said.

• “In general, markets in Florida are deciding to decelerate pretty rapidly. Based on this new data, it looks like the Myrtle Beach market and other areas are not decelerating as much as the south Atlantic,” Leventis said.

Nationwide the numbers show a different trend.

• U.S. home prices continued to rise in the second quarter but showed the biggest slowdown in three decades.

• Average home prices rose 1.17 percent in the April through June period, compared with 3.65 percent in the second quarter of 2005 - the biggest decline in price growth since the Office of Federal Housing started keeping track of home prices in 1975, the report showed.

• The agency cited higher interest rates and rising inventories of homes for sale as factors in the slowdown in price growth.

Leventis called Myrtle Beach’s appreciation an anomaly compared with the rest of South Carolina.

• Local analysts contend the national study proves that the Grand Strand single-family market has a strong future - despite a spike in inventory and slight drop in sales.

• In Horry County, sales of resale single family homes dropped 6 percent in the second quarter but the average price jumped 7 percent, according to Market Opportunity Research Enterprises, a real estate research firm in Rocky Mount, N.C.

“The crystal ball says that we’re in an adjustment period. We’re not headed for disaster and not in that bursting bubble. We’re in an adjusting market,” said Tom Maeser, local market analyst and president of the Fortune Academy of Real Estate.

• Helping the local market are baby boomers, who are moving in increasing numbers to the Carolinas.

• “I think you are going to see continued strength in the housing market in Myrtle Beach as retirees flock to the area,” said Al Parish, economist at Charleston Southern University.

• Parish added he doesn’t expect single-family appreciation to be as high as 23 percent next year. He says prices will increase about 8 percent.

• “Despite the appreciation, Myrtle Beach is still a good buy [compared with other coastal cities],” Parish said.

Meantime, single-family building continues. Permits for single-family homes increased 7 percent in the second quarter, while condo permits dropped 34 percent from last year.

But single-family lot sales fell 11 percent, signaling a downshift in land acquisition by developers, Maeser said.

Source: Jenny Burns, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, SC