January is here and we are starting a new decade. The last one was pretty incredible for Charleston and myself personally.
January is Museum Mile Month. Here in Charleston, you can by a pass for the month and visit many houses, museums, and art galleries. Of course, there will be lots of New Year’s Eve Celebrations at the Yorktown, Marion Square, the Music Hall, the Alley, the Cedar Room, SC Society Hall, and the Rice Mill just to name a few. And the Folly Beach Flip Flop Drop and Fireworks show at midnight. Here’s the January calendar of events:
1: Bill Murray Look-a-Like Polar Bear Plunge, Folly Beach
1: Dunleavy’s Pub Polar Bear Plunge, Sullivan’s Island
1: Polar Bear Plunge, Kiawah Sanctuary
2: Harlem Globetrotters, N Charleston Coliseum
3: Sarah Rutledge Dinner, Middleton Place
5: James Gregory, Chas Music Hall
8: Grace Potter, Chas Music Hall
9-19: Charleston Restaurant Week
11: 7th Annual Snowboard Rail Jam, Mex 1
12: 7th Annual East Cooper Meals on Wheels Oyster Roast, Palmetto Island County Park
14: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Gaillard
14-17: 17th Charleston Comedy Festival
18: Cars and Coffee, Freshfields Kiawah
19-20: St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Chas Music Hall
22: Three Dog Night
23-26: Charleston Jazz Festival
25: The Great Amazing Race Charleston, James Island County Park
25-26: Monster Jam, N Chas Coliseum
26: Lowcountry Oyster Festival, Boone Hall
30: Caropolis Awards, Riviera Theatre
31: A Night in the Valley, Trident Tech Thornley Campus
31: Todd Snider, Chas Music Hall
2019 was a tremendous year for Charleston Real Estate. 2019 surpassed the 17,515 closed sales of 2018. 2019 ended up being the best year ever, even beating the previous record set in 2017. And the median sales price is at an all-time high too. Fortunately, the gains in median sales prices have been modest and sustainable over the past few years. And very importantly, we are still below the long term growth trend line which shows we still have room for appreciation.
The end of the last decade was a completely different story. We were mired in the disaster of the mortgage debacle. We had just over 8k sales and the median sales price was at $184k, which was considerably off the high of $210k reached in 2007. This a similar story to many of the bigger US metropolitan cities. Charleston and most of the US has recovered nicely. Charleston has probably done a bit better than most due to its coastal location and the relocation of Boeing to Charleston. The tourism industry has always been good to us and we have pretty much been voted the best city in the US by Travel and Leisure Magazine for the past decade. Now, we are seeing another boom about to hit Charleston with the building of the Volvo Plant in the Moncks Corner area. Charleston is well prepared for another successful decade.
