The following is a transcript taken from Roni's Facebook Live Friday Market Update on 1/14/22 at 10:30am.

Roni:

Hi friends. TGIF. I'm excited to be doing this market update. I used to do these for a while every single Friday without fail. So here we are in January and I'm glad to be back because whether you're looking to buy or not, if you own a property, you're going to be interested in what the market is doing. And that's just the reality. As a realtor, every time I see somebody, I can't tell you how many times a week I get asked, "What's the market like?" That is the number one question that I get asked. And so that's what I'm here to do is to share about that.

Recently, I was in a house for a listing appointment. I said, "How do you know about me?" They said that they had been watching me on social media, but originally they found me on the grocery cart ads at Harris Teeter, if y'all remember those. It's been a little while since I've been on those, but they seemed to work for those years that I was advertising on them. I've considered coming back onto those grocery carts. So, stay tuned and we'll see if that goes into the marketing plan for this year, but it was always fun.

I'm sitting here in a brand new listing and I just pushed it live last night. It was the, gosh, third listing, I think for the week. Well in the last seven days, at least we had a couple go on last Friday and then this one came on, like I said, last night. But I'm here in Cresswind at the Ponds, wonderful 55-plus community. This house in particular, it looks like a model home. In fact, I brought Braeden with me today. He's behind the scenes working. And he said, "Is this lived in or is it a model?" It looks like a model home. It’s 3139 Cross Vine.

Here's a misconception about 55-plus communities - it's old folks. It is not old folk people at all. It is very active and that's why people oftentimes buy or build in these communities - for the lifestyle. There's everything from going out into the lakes and kayaking and fishing. There's pickle ball. One of my past clients here in Cresswind. Hi, Michael, if you catch this later, but Michael he's like, "Save your money now because you're going to want to buy in an active lifestyle community." And it's just a reality. The people here have a great connection with each other. This seller in particular is very friendly. She has found her very best friend here in the neighborhood.

Let's see who we've got. Hey, Elizabeth. I love that you always watched my lives and participate. But again, this is intended to be a market update, but just another great way for me to connect with you guys and kind of bring some value because the market is active and that's what people always want to know. How is the market today? So, that's what I'm here.

And I sat through an economist meeting on Wednesday and they were sharing just about the state as a whole and what the pre-pandemic numbers were versus post pandemic. And where our shortage in inventory is going to lead us into this year and such. So those are the kind of things that I wanted to bring to you. You can't go into a restaurant or into a store without realizing about the labor shortage. And here's one thing that they were saying is that the spending in our state is 4.4% higher now than it was pre-pandemic. I call it a caffeine high that we're still on from the federal government funding our accounts.

Consumer spending is up 4.4%. These restaurants and hospitality have to have not only what the number of employees that they had pre-pandemic, but they've got to have more than that. That's why we're seeing the labor shortage. It's not that the jobs... That people don't want to work, which was exactly what my perception has been for a while. It's not that at all. It's that these businesses are booming because consumer spending is up. So, that was interesting to me to learn that. The federal government funding is starting to cease. We're going to see that continue to die down. And as it does, I think consumer spending will die off a little bit and it will start balancing out with our labor workforce as well.

Something else that I found to be interesting, and I get a lot of this, I'm sitting in a 55 plus community right now. This house is for sale. It is the only, no I'm sorry, it is one of two active listings in Cresswind at the Ponds. There's plenty of opportunity for new construction. Although I say that, there's land. There's land developed, but they have it all on hold or a great deal of it is put on hold. So if you want to buy it a 55-plus community at resale, it is hard to find because so many people that move into our state are doing so because they are retiring here. So, that's another big thing is a lot of our consumer consumers are in the 55-plus. Let me give you one of the statistics that they shared with us. 69% of incoming residences enter our state are at the age of over 55. So, they're not in the workforce. They're consumers spending in our economy and we are having the luxury of enjoying that liveliness within our economy, but they're not contributing to our workforce here.

Second homes, I shared this last Friday, are up substantially. I think it's almost 70% increase from pre-pandemic. Second home purchases are huge, as well as investment properties. We are getting a tremendous amount of investors. They're liquidating their properties around the country, especially in some Northern states. And they're buying here in South Carolina. So, all of that is creating a high sales volume, low inventory. And so we hope to see that balance out at some point. We are at historical lows. We've been there. We're about between 1,300 and 1,400 homes active in our entire MLS guys. Just to put that in perspective, a healthy market would put us at enough inventory to last six months. We are less than one month of inventory in our MLS. So, it is still a seller's market. If you've got the right price point and the right kind of property, it is still very much a seller's market.

So if you're looking to sell, I like to beat the market. I'm not real fair on a lot of competition. So, that's why we're getting listings now. I like to see people list their houses in January and February. Buyers are out there. And so it's a great time to list. Do you have any questions for me as we push through this conversation? Kind of keeping an eye on things. Let's see, I've got my iPad set up here. So if you have any questions and you want to post it later, make sure to make a comment and I'll get back in touch with you. If you feel like this might, this information may benefit somebody that is looking to purchase or sell in the area or just interested in the economics of what our real estate market's doing, tag them and connect them with me. I'd be glad to answer any questions that they have as well.

So last week we were really down in our sales volume and I think, well, it's not, I think I know it's because of low inventory. This week, we're getting back up to some regular numbers and we've had 350 residential sales here in the last week. 280 of those were single families. And that's pretty good. That's showing that there's still a high level, between 280 and 350, there's still a pretty high percentage of that being condos, townhouses, anything that is multifamily. So, we're still selling a good bit of both.

A lot of people ask about foreclosures and short sales. We've only been seeing one or two of those a week in our entire MLS. That is coming a little bit heavier right now. We saw six of our sales last week in the MLS were short sales or foreclosures. We may see that peak up a little bit more as the spring comes about. There is no economist right now out there that I have found that I listen to that is saying that foreclosures and short sales are going to be commonplace. So if you're holding out and trying to find the best property that is perhaps the greatest deal... I had somebody the other day, they said, "Well, if you come across a good deal, let me know." There's no real good deals to be had right now. But you betcha, if I find one, I will send it out to you. But don't hold out waiting for that short sale or foreclosure. Six out of 350 sales, basically. So, not real good statistics there.

We are seeing a little bit of a dip in new construction. They've always been strong in our market. And really within the last year, we've seen it as much as 50% or a little even higher than that of new construction sales that happened. And week by week, right now we're at 20% of new construction sales. So, the reason that I'm seeing that that's happening is because starts are a little bit slower coming out. The materials are still hard to get. I was just on site yesterday with somebody that's ready to close. We're still waiting on windows, garage door openers, and glass for shower enclosures. We have to have those things to get occupancy permits.

And so there's still a strong push with new construction, but just keep in mind that there can be some delays. Right now, new construction contracts, those guys are going to tell you that it's going to take you 9 to 12 months before you close. So, you better have patience on your side, if you want to go with a new construction build, because it is going to be a little bit more time consuming than normal. That's not just here guys. That's nationwide. I had some clients that left here, moved down to Florida, and they're waiting on their home to be built. And they've been waiting for a year and a half from contract to close. So, that is just something that is wildly spread.

Again, thank y'all for anybody that's joining. Tag a friend, if you feel like they could benefit from being a part of conversations on a regular basis about market statistics and such. I've got lots more numbers and statistics that I could share with you. If you're interested in real estate, please reach out to me directly. Let me know. I love the business that I'm in. I love sharing content with you. I love being your resource for all things real estate related. And I don't care if that means finding the right painter, the right house cleaner. I need to replace my flooring and my carpet. And who do I contact for home insurance? You might want to home warranty. You may find that your house is getting older. It's got some age to it and you just want to get in a one year home warranty to cover some of the upcoming costs you know that you're going to be faced with. I've got all the right people. So reach out to me. Again, I want to be all things related to real estate. Happy to help in any way.

We've got a wealth building seminar that's happening January 29th starts at 10 o'clock. We're going to have some great content that comes into that where you get to ask questions. I don't care... It's not geared toward first time home buyers. Although if you're a first time home buyer, great, come because you're going to find tons of information that's going to be beneficial to you. But we are looking for people that are going to be wanting to build wealth in real estate.

What that means is we're going to be answering questions. Where can my down payment come from? If I want to buy a second home or an investment property, what kind of loan opportunities are available to me? Maybe you want to buy a fixer upper and you've got questions about can I take a... What kind of loans are available for fixer upper opportunities that are out there? Maybe you're a DIYer. I am not. I commend everybody that can handle a DIY project. But maybe you're a DIYer, you want to take a house that's got some age and some projects to it. And you've got money for down payment, but you don't have money for the down payment in addition to all of the investments that you're going to have to make for the DIY projects. There's loan opportunities out there. You want to flip properties, you want to get it, fix it up, rent it.

Those are the kind of conversations that we're going to be having during this wealth building seminar. I've got Cornerstone Home Lending that's going to be partnering with me. So, you've got a real estate advisor, you've got a lender. And then in February, we're going to do another one and bring in a CPA. So, make sure to find information on that message, private message me if you want the invite. We've got it out there on both by Facebook and my Instagram pages where you can find that link for that wealth building seminar.

Thanks again, guys, for tuning in and joining me today. I appreciate those that jumped on live. And I appreciate everybody that is watching this as a replay. Make sure to drop a comment so that I know you are here. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back with you next Friday.