Charleston SC Metro Real Estate: South Carolina: Goose Creek

Goose Creek Real Estate - Goose Creek South Carolina is a suburb city of Charleston SC.  The real estate market in the Metro Charleston area has seen a decline in recent years, as has most of the country, but overall the market has stayed pretty sound.  I say sound because the last few years has been the effect of the market balancing itself from the real estate bubble that occurred during the mid years of this decade. 

The chart below shows the rise and fall of homes sold during 2009 in Goose Creek, SC.  The year started off extraordinarily slow but with government incentives for first time home buyers the year ended strong, save December.  The primary culprits for the low home sale numbers throughout the year included higher unemployment and tighter lending guidelines.

The next chart gives a big picture of the Goose Creek housing market from 2002 - 2009.  Home sales began to escalate in the first part of the decade with a peek in 2006.  Although home sales began to decline in 2007, home prices have only seen a modest decline in comparison to most of the other country.  Why?  According to Jeannine Cataldi, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight, "They (Charleston) didn't have such a big run-up, and they have a diverse economic base that enabled them (home prices) to stay stable."  Click here to read more on the 5 Markets Expected to Fare Best in 2010.

Crowfield Plantation is a vibrant community in Goose Creek South Carolina, a suburb of Charleston. Crowfield is the largest community of its kind in the Charleston metropolitan and is comprised of 27 subsections/neighborhoods. It is centrally located with easy access to downtown, Charleston Air Force Base, and The Navy Weapons Station. The early neighborhoods began being built in the late 1970's and early 1980's by WestVaco Development Corporation. The neighborhoods development continued through the new century and while most of it is complete there are still a few new homes being built in a few neighborhoods. Crowfield has 4 pools, two tennis courts, a lake, six parks, a golf course and 26 miles of leisure trails. Note that access to some amenities may require a fee.

The following is a list of the major subsections within Crowfield Plantation: Alston Court, Spring Hall, Cherry Hill, Bridge Creek, Hunters Woods, The Commons, Bloomfield, Gibbs Forest, Piedmont Place, Deerfield Place, Stratford Forest, Lakeview Terrace, The Preserve, Chatfield Place, Haleswood, Adthan Place, Stonehurst, Hearthstone, Bedford Place, Friar's Grove, Cadbury, Pembroke, & The Hamlets. Note: Detail neighborhood reports to follow in the coming days and months. Check back for updates.

If you are interested in buying or selling a home in Crowfield Plantation, contact your neighborhood expert, Michael Johnson at 843-817-5299 or via email at michaeljohnson@carolinaone.com. Visit my website at www.providingthelight.com.

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Understanding the Title Search

Among the many areas of due diligence in buying a home, a title search, or sometimes called a title examination, is one of the most important.  The title is a document that gives evidence of an individual's ownership of property.  The title search is usually performed by an attorney (usually the closing attorney) in an effort to ensure that the title on a particular house is free of encumbrances.  An encumbrance is any lien, liability, or charge against a property.  The attorney performing the title search will be looking for many things including:

1. Mortgages - looks for 2nd and 3rd mortgages that may affect the closing.
2. Life Estates
   
3. Right of Ways
4. Judgment liens
5. Special assessment liens
6. Current leases
7. Deed restrictions
8. Easements
9. Tax liens
10. Mechanic liens.

It is important to note that if a buyers is securing a loan from a lending institution, that lending institution will require a title search to be performed to assure the seller is conveying a good and marketable title.  Upon completion of the title search, the attorney will most likely offer the buyer Title Insurance.

What is Title Insurance?  Title insurance normally covers defects which do not appear in public records.  Title insurance indicates only that title is insurable and not that it is without defects.  If no defect is found it is considered Marketable Title, which means that it is a title that an ordinary person in an ordinary market would accept.  This is based on the concept that no title is completely free of all defects.  There are two type of title insurance policies.  Mortgagee Policies are policies that would cover the amount of the mortgage only.  Owners Policy are policies that would cover the owner's equity plus the mortgage if there were one.

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Buying real estate is a a great long term investment.  After all, as Mark Twain once put it, "Buy land, they're not making any more."  When getting involved in real estate it is important to make the distinction between the two major types of property and the rights involved in each.  The two types of property are Real Property and Personal Property. 

What is Real Estate?  Generally speaking, real estate is defined as any interest in land.  Note that interest in this case is defined as one's rights, powers, privileges, and/or immunities in real estate.  Land is best described as the surface of the earth extending downward to the center of the earth and upward to infinity, including things put there by nature such as trees and water.  This is mostly associated with real property.

What is Real Property?  Real property is the land plus things permanently attached to it either by nature or by man.  For example, the lot plus the house, fence, trees, bushes, and/or a well would be considered real property.  Real Property comes with three property rights:

1. Mineral Rights - the property owner usually owns the mineral rights below the surface since land ownership extends downward to the center of the earth.  The right to mine the property or sell the mineral rights usually comes with ownership.
2. Air Rights - Because ownership of land extends upward to infinity land rights include the air space above the land.  The government most often will supersede and restrict these rights with zoning restrictions and by allowing aircraft to use the airspace above your land.
3. Water Rights - Water rights vary by state and usually fall into one of two categories:  Riparian Rights and Littoral Rights.  Riparian Rights deal with ownership of property along bodies of water that flow (rivers and creeks) and property lines depend on local laws.  In South Carolina Riparian property rights hinge on if the stream is navigable or non-navigable.  Property owners along navigable rivers and streams property rights extend only to the water's edge.  Those along non-navigable rivers and streams could own the land under the stream to the center of the stream.  Littoral Rights deal with ownership along large lakes, seas, and oceans affected by tide currents.  Ownership here usually extends to the mean high water mark.

What is Personal Property?  All property that does not fit the definition of real property is usually classified as personal property.  Personable Property is usually movable.  Historically Personal Property has been called (and is still called this in some areas of the country) personalty or chattel property.  Types of Personal Property include:

1. Emblements - Emblements are annual growing crops (must be replaced each year).  Examples include corn, wheat, and tobacco.
2. Trade Fixtures - these are fixtures used in a trade or business by a tenant.  These include store shelves or restaurant equipment. 
   
3. Chattel Real - this is usually paperwork that displays an personal property interest in the real property.  This includes leases, mortgages, and land contracts.

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Most people who are not involved in real estate day in and day out often get confused with the industry terminology that Realtors routinely use.  It can be a confusing barrage of lingo that frustrates buyers and sellers.  One of these terms is Earnest Money.

What is Earnest Money?  - Earnest money in real estate is "good faith money," or as I like to call it serious money.  This is the money that a buyer usually puts up to show the seller that he/she is serious about buying a house.  This is often necessary in the mind of the seller because buying a house usually takes about 30 days (depending on the situation) from the time the buyer and seller ratify a contract until the time of the closing.  The earnest money from the buyer is put is an escrow account and held by one of the involved real estate brokerages until the closing.  If all goes according to plan and the buyer buys the house from the seller, then the earnest money is credited to the buyer at closing.  But, in the event that the buyer backs out of the contract, without proper cause within the contract, the earnest money goes to the seller and the seller must then put the house/property back on the market in hopes of finding another buyer.

How Much Earnest Money? - It is important to note that in South Carolina there is no law requiring earnest money nor is there a law determining how much money should be put in escrow for any given price range.  But, most sellers will not consider an offer without the earnest money being part of the offer.  Why?  Because the seller is taking a risk.  You see once the seller accepts an offer on their home, the home is taken off of the "active" listings on the market. The seller usually secures a new place to live and begins the process of moving his/her household goods into another home or storage. The earnest money ensures that if the buyer backs out (apart from what is allowed in the contract) the seller is compensated for the risk of any potential buyers that were lost as well as their time and trouble involved.

So how much is required?  I know many places around the country have an unwritten rule of 3%-5%.  The only time you will see that around Charleston is with some new construction builders and with some bank owned properties.  In the Charleston SC market, anything under 125K usually calls for an earnest money deposit between $500-$1000 (unless otherwise specified from the seller).  Anything from 125K-250K usually calls for an earnest money deposit of $1000-$1500.  Anything from 250K-500K usually calls for earnest money between the amounts of $1500 and $2500.  Anything above that is usually specified by the seller.  Just like anything else in real estate, earnest money is usually negotiable.

The key thing to remember about earnest money is that is should be used to strenghthen  the offer of the buyer.  A solid offer, a preapproval letter, and a reasonable sum of earnest money can go a long way in convincing the seller to accept the offer of a buyer.

Goose Creek South Carolina, a suburb of Charleston SC, has a real estate market that continues to sell amidst the market decline.  The number of homes sold are not what they were a year ago but Goose Creek real estate remains steady nonetheless.  In September of 2009 50 homes sold in Goose Creek.  There are currently just over 400 homes on the market in Goose Creek.

The following is a graph of the top selling neighborhoods in Goose Creek in September.  Note that what is mostly selling in Brickhope Plantation and Brickhope Greens is new construction.

In the overall market of the Charleston SC Metro, Goose Creek ranked number five on the list of cities with the most homes sold in September as demonstrated in the graph below.

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ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy that promotes energy-efficient products and practices. 

On October 3, 2008, President Bush signed into law the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008."  The bill extended tax credits for energy efficient home improvements to include windows, doors, roofs, insulation, HVAC, and non-solar water heaters).  The residential tax credit is available for the aforementioned improvements made and placed in service in 2009 & 2010.  

According to the government website, tax credits are available at 30% of the cost up to $1500 for existing homes only (new construction does not qualify).  The website goes on to explain the rules:

Tax credits are now available for home improvements:

• must be "placed in service" from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010
• must be for taxpayer's principal residence, EXCEPT for geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, solar panels, and small wind energy systems (where second homes qualify)
• $1,500 is the maximum total amount that can be claimed for all products placed in service in 2009 & 2010 for most home improvements, EXCEPT for geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, solar panels, fuel cells, and small wind energy systems which are not subject to this cap, and are in effect through 2016
• must have a Manufacturer Certification Statement to qualify
• for record keeping, save your receipts and the Manufacturer Certification Statement
• improvements made in 2009 will be claimed on your 2009 taxes (filed by April 15, 2010) — use IRS Tax Form 5695 (2009 version) — it will be available late 2009 or early 2010
• If you are building a new home, you can qualify for the tax credit for geothermal heat pumps, photovoltaics, solar water heaters, small wind energy systems and fuel cells, but not the tax credits for windows, doors, insulation, roofs, HVAC, or non-solar water heaters. More.

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"It takes a hundred men to make an encampment, but one woman to make a home."  - Robert G. Ingersoll

"Almost any man worthy of his salt would fight to defend his home, but no one ever heard of a man going to war for his boarding house." - Mark Twain

"Home, in one form or another, is the great object of life." - Josiah Gilbert Holland

Goose Creek Real Estate and Homes Sold Statistics

August of 2009 saw a major drop in the number of homes sold in Goose Creek from that of the previous 5 months.  In fact the numbers resembled that of early 2009.  What does this mean?  It means everyone that was jumping the gun and thinking that we may be seeing a shift in the market need not overreact.  Although August is traditionally a slower month because of kids going back to school, everyone needs to understand that we are still in a recession, and that home sales and prices will not rebound over night and may take upwards of 5 to ten years to get back to where we were in 05 and 06.  If you are going to sell you home, it must be competitive in both pricing and condition.  If you need assistance, give me a call or send me an email.  I'd be glad to help.

The Stats 

Here is a graph to give you a good picture of how the market has been doing this year.

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