The following was taken from a Facebook Live market update on 6/3/22.

Roni:               

Hello friends. It's Friday. And I'm coming to you from the office here at Keller Williams. Just been a great week. Gosh, it's been a whirlwind of excitement in the real estate market. Lots of things that went under contract in the last four to six weeks. Listings that came on have been closing, so as a team we've been doing a phenomenal job of getting those contracts to closing. Want to bring to you a market update like I do every week, but here's a take two on my solar panels, do or don't. So last week I came to you with that information. The audio got a little bit messed up. That's what happens with live videos. But today I wanted to re-deliver that same message to you. So people ask me oftentimes, "Should I or should I not invest in solar panels?"

                        My suggestion is do not unless you're going to stay in that house for the next 15, 20, 25 plus years to reap all the rewards out of them. Recently we had a contract where we were representing the buyer's side and trying to get to contract on a property that has $75,000 financed over 20 years in solar panels. How many energy bills could you pay with $75,000? They get sold on the idea because they're told that you can get a $20,000 credit towards your taxes, which is true. You have to qualify for it and file for it, but that still leaves an exorbitant amount of money in expenses towards solar panels. So when asked, should you or shouldn't you, my answer is going to be, unless this is your lifetime residence, don't do it. Even when we go to sell the property, then the appraisal is not going to give you what you've expended. Your return on investment in a short time is not going to be there.

                        So I think of everything as an investment, everything as an investment, and I'm going to tell you from years of experience, dealing with solar panels, they have not proven to be a good investment for most people. Now, if you're going to live off grid, that's a completely different conversation, and one that is not applicable to this nature, but if it's just a dwelling that is grid based and you're wanting to convert it over to solar panels, let's have a conversation on investment and what your goals are for living in that house before you expense for that. There's a lot of complications with the loan. If you want to not pay those off at closing and turn that over to a buyer to refinance when you go to sell it, so many complications. Short answer, don't do it.

                        So let's talk about the market for a minute. So with all the flurry of activities, we're still falling short from our numbers back in 2021, which let's be quite honest, were unsustainable market conditions there for a while. As we came out of COVID in 2020, we hit a flurry of activity the latter six months in 2020, and pushed on through with that kind of activity through 2021. But when we talk about we're not to the same numbers, let's give some actual data to that. Let's give some real hard facts, because you're going to hear a plethora of different numbers and data across different portals for news, depending on where you listen to your news. So let's talk about real hard facts for a moment. In our market, that's all I'm talking about here, I'm not talking about national numbers. I have a lot of data for that too, and I'm happy to share that with you, but I'm just talking about our residential numbers here in the Charleston area.

                        Last year from January to April this time, and I don't have May number... So I don't have May numbers into this data yet. We will have that in the next couple of months, but these are numbers only from January through the end of April. Our MLS had just over 7,200 sales, and that was in 2021. In 2022 it's just over 6,500 sales. So we're about 10% off from last year's numbers. So in the big picture, big scale of things, that's not that big of a deal, but it's not based on the demand. The demand is absolutely still there. It's been based on the limited amount of inventory, how many people are willing to sell their properties and how many buyers are able to buy that. So that's where we've seen the market really shift up with multiple offer scenarios and a lot of buyers not being able to have the chance to secure the house that they want.

                        So 10% down in production this year, but let's talk about how the market has continued to climb in value. So even though we're 10% less in sales, we are up 15.6% in our sales volume. So the properties are continuing to elevate in value, even though our production numbers are down. So just some great hard facts for you to know. So people will say, "Is this a good deal?" If we're looking at specific property, is it a good deal? Well, does it meet your needs? Can you get financed or pay cash for it? Then it's a good deal. If we can negotiate to terms that suits you, it's a great deal. The best deal, though, was five years ago in all those houses that I was able to sell for those folks, because that they have done well in their equity. But don't waste time, jump into the market. Buy a house, because in five more years, your property values will have soared as well.

                        So we've seen from seven weeks ago where our MLS had about a thousand active listings, today it's got about 1,600. So we are seeing more opportunities for buyers. More buyers are having success in securing their home purchase. So that's a huge pro and something that I really want to rejoice in with you. If you know of somebody that's looking to buy, or maybe you are the buyer, we are having a better chance of securing those. So as rates, let's talk about rates for just a moment, because they are... Even though they've come down a little bit here in the last couple of weeks, they have elevated from about 3% when we started in January to sitting around 5% today.

                        What does that mean for a buyer's buying power? Well, for every percentage point that it goes up, it limits us about 10,000 in their purchasing abilities. So for the average buyer, what they could have afforded back in January at a 3% interest rate, then we're about $20,000 less in affordability for that same buyer in today's conditions. Something else to consider, homes that were bought three years ago for 500,000 at about a 3% rate, now we're reselling those houses for about 800,000 at about a 5% rate. So affordability is definitely shifted, is definitely squeezing out more of our middle price point. It's really affecting those first time home buyers with affordability because it's costing on average, with that elevation of price, it's costing people about $2,000 a month on average, between that $500,000 house and 800 now is what it's selling for. So between 500 and 800,000 purchase price, you're looking at about $2,000 month difference in affordability.

                        So just some facts to think about, but we are seeing some inventory pop up. I've got some listings. Keller Williams has listings. We're one of the largest brokerages here in the Charleston market, so we do a good job of networking within our Keller Williams brand about coming soons and such as we're about to hit the market. If you're looking for something specific, reach out to me, let me know, so I can keep an eye out for it. And if you're thinking about selling, always reach out to me. Let's talk early and upfront about what your value is. If you're just curious about something happening in the market, reach out to me. Thanks, guys. I always appreciate you tuning in and I'll be here for you when you're ready to talk.