The following is a transcript taken from Roni's Facebook Live Friday Market Update on 1/21/22 at 10:30am.

Roni:
Hi friends, Roni Haskell here. So glad that you're joining me again today for this Friday market update. I like to bring you value and number one question I always get every week, every day is, "How's the real estate market?" And as your go to realtor in the area, I want to deliver that hard proven results of why real estate is still an essential business to be in, in terms of investments. Make sure your portfolio is stretched into that real estate realm because it's a wonderful market climate to be in and investment wise.

We're going to talk more about market updates in a little bit, but today I've got my friend Will Bradham, make sure I say that correctly, here with True Homes. True Homes, if you're not familiar with True Homes, they are a regional builder in North and South Carolina and I like the way that they do business. They are very focused on customer, they're very customer friendly and they are very realtor friendly. So with me today is Will, so thank you for being part of the conversation.

Will Bradham:
For sure, thank you for having me.

Roni:
You betcha. So Will's been selling over in Nexton for a while. Kind of give us a quick snapshot of you're coming from and where you're building to in the new neighborhood.

Will Bradham:
Yeah, for sure. So I've been over in Nexton for about four years in North Creek Village. It was one of our flagship communities here in the Charleston region. We've had a lot of success over in Nexton, I believe we were the number two ranked builder for sales over there.

Roni:
How many homes have y'all put into Nexton?

Will Bradham:
We've put right around 400 homes into Nexton and we got another 200 to go.

Roni:
In, you say four years?

Will Bradham:
Yep in about four years.

Roni:
So four years, built 400 homes with raving reviews. I mean, I get asked all the time from people that are moving into the area, looking to build new, they ask me, "Tell me about the builder. Tell me about the builder." And so I have nothing but raving reviews from True Homes. So glad to know about Nexton. Now as y'all are transitioning over to this new development, tell us about it.

Will Bradham:
Yes, so we have officially opened our Homecoming neighborhood on the Dorchester County side of Summerville, just off Highway 165. We're going to be building 1100 homes in there and of course to your ears, I know that's beautiful and everyone's looking because we all know how inventory is.

Roni:
A lot of our people watching, they live in Dorchester County. They're tied into the county in some way.

Will Bradham:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Roni:
And they've been waiting for this opportunity to be presented. So tell us a little bit about the product line, the price point, some of the perks about the neighborhood.

Will Bradham:
So as of right now, we're going to be starting in the three fifties. Later on in the community, we're going to be introducing some town homes and some different product lines. We should have all in all, by the time we're finished, about three product lines in the neighborhood.

Will Bradham:
The community's going to be 1100 homes, like I said, we're on both sides of Highway 165 so you're going to have maybe 550 on each side. It is a full amenity package. We're going to have a pool on each side of the community. We're going to have covered playgrounds-So with the amenities, it's going to be more resort style. So we're going to have a covered playground, that way you actually use the playground around July and August when it's a hundred degrees out. We're going to have two pools on each side of the community for each section, and it's going to be more of a resort style feature so you're going to have corn hole areas, built-in grills, and the HOA is still only $700 a year. So all those perks while still a very reasonable HOA.

Roni:
That is fantastic. Well, so there's... Y'all are one of only two builders that are over there.

Will Bradham:
Right.

Roni:
And so being able to have that opportunity to be in new build, so there's some strong perks to new construction for clients and I deal with both the resale side and new construction, but I will tell you there's some strong features when you build new. One is going to be that you're not going to get into bidding wars typically. You're going to go in, you're going to either buy the spec or you're going to buy a lot and you're going to build. Now do y'all increase your price from the contract to close? Is there opportunity there for price inflation-

Will Bradham:
There's not.

Roni:
... in the sales contract? Some builders are doing that and so we just want to be tuned into that and again, that kind of goes back into the feeding of, y'all are very customer focused and we want to make sure that we're protecting our clients on my side of this deal that once they're under contract, they're not going to have price increases because of inflation of materials or demand-

Will Bradham:
Correct.

Roni:
... before closing. So I like to hear that as a huge plus, so their price is protected, there's really no bidding wars. There is the opportunity to be picking your own materials and the upgrades that you want to build in your house.

Will Bradham:
Yes.

Roni:
So you're not buying something and then feeling like you have to renovate it right away to get it where you want it to be. Warranties are a big deal. You've got a, what 10 year structural warranty on the place?

Will Bradham:
10 years structural.

Roni:
And then two year-

Will Bradham:
Two year mechanical warranty and then one year you're covered on the bumper.

Roni:
This huge, huge. And so the warranties cover you during the ownership of it for largely, not surprising that 15% of the sales in our MLS are contributed to two new construction in just the last week. Sometimes we see those numbers tick up pretty big, but in the last seven days of our real estate market, 15% of our MLS sales have been contributed to new construction. Not surprisingly at all to our inventory throughout our MLS is low, historically low. It's been like that for a while. But just to give you as the listener, a perspective of what we mean by low, we're sitting about 1200 homes in our MLS right now, that is it, within the Tri-County area. New homes to be build, proposed construction, resales 1200.

Roni:
Take us back two years ago to this time in 2020, we were sitting at about 5,600 listings in MLS. So that's what I'm talking about by historic lows, outstanding, but there's opportunity greatly for this new construction piece. And so I'm glad to know that y'all are up and rolling over there and always enjoy doing business with True Homes.

Will Bradham:
Yeah, for sure.

Roni:
So if anybody is interested in learning more about Homecoming, please reach out to me directly and we'll start the conversation and very quickly loop him in. All right. So here's some more statistics about market update. Thank y'all those that are listening in and viewing. I appreciate you being here today. I appreciate you listening because the reality is, whether you're looking to buy or sell this year, if you're invested in any form of real estate, you need to know what the market is doing. What's happening to your investment in your real estate piece. And then as you talk with other people that are maybe possibly moving in the area or thinking about purchasing and investing in our market, is it a wise choice? And so I commend you for being here and tuning in each week. All right, to give you a quick snapshot of the last seven days in our MLS, 329 total residential sales went under contract and 20% of those were attached units, townhouses, condos, that kind of thing. The rest of it, all single family detached. Over 50% of those sales in the MLS happened in Berkeley and Dorchester counties. So chances are, if you're listening to this, most of my viewers and followers are in the, what we call the North area of our MLS, which covers largely Dorchester and Berkeley counties, over 50% of the sales for the last year. And we continue to see that, this area's growing. I remember 20 years ago when I got into this business and I was selling in Dorchester county, a lot of my sales were happening because of the value, people saw it.

They couldn't get as much for their money in Mount Pleasant and in Charleston. So they were buying in Dorchester county because of the value. I will tell you now the majority largely of buyers that are buying in the North area are doing so for the sense of community. It has a strong driving force. The schools are preferred, well, I won't say preferred, but they are a strong pull for families. And that's one reason that Homecoming is so popular because of the schools that are zoned for that community, but 50% of the sales here in the North area. Let's see Mount Pleasant. I mentioned Mount Pleasant a while ago, Mount Pleasant median price is over 800,000 in the last week. 800,000, that's 288 a square foot. That is why there's a straw of driving force for Dorchester and Berkeley counties. The value is still there and you get the layered piece of community and atmosphere.

The MLS median price right now in the last seven days was 375. That's been trending that way for a little while. It has gone up again. I delivered the message last week that our MLS, prices have gone up or the sales prices have gone up 16% in the last 12 months. And that's a rolling 12 months. And so we will continue to watch that as we go through this selling season of this early spring. But right now our median sales price of 375, which is 202 a square foot. And to be able to get into that price range, you're going to be here in the Dorchester, Berkeley counties.New Paragraph