Staff Reports
Published Feb. 24, 2009
Home values across South Carolina fell 3.4% during 2008, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Metro areas in the state saw different results in the agency’s fourth-quarter report on home appreciation. Values in the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville area fell by 1.9% during the past year.
Meanwhile, homes in the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley area increased in value by 3.2%. In Anderson, tracked separately, home values rose 3.1%. In the Columbia area, home values rose 1.46% for the year.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s quarterly report provides a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices.
State-level data come from sales of existing single-family homes with conforming, conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Metro area data also include appraisals used for refinancing.
Nationally home values fell 8.2% for the year. Prices fell over the last four quarters in 44 states and Washington, D.C.
South Carolina ranked 22nd in home appreciation over the past 12 months. North Dakota, at No. 1, saw home values rise 1.9% during 2008. At the bottom of the list, Nevada home values fell by 28.2%.
Between the third and fourth quarters of 2008, South Carolina’s home values fell by 3.5%. In the federal agency’s third-quarter report, the state’s home values had dropped 0.45% since the second quarter.
South Carolina must be the luckist State in the world or people are lieing. How can all49 other States home values are going down ans this states metro areas are going up. The news media is in bed with the local goverments so tax assessor's can get taxes increased at time of reassessments. The State of South Carolina's tax laws state that if a major change in a house price it must be reassessed. It is a double edge sword. A lot of counties say that it is for house price increases. The law doesn't state that. I think it is time for the citizens of South Carolina to demand that their county council's force their assessors to reassess homes down to there real value.
We ARE lucky people. According to this study by the FHFA, 22nd luckiest out of 50. Part of our good fortune is that SC did not experience a housing bubble of the magnitude of some other markets. We are therefore enjoying a somewhat less damaged housing market than, say, California or Florida. I'm with you, Bargeman. I think we should always keep a close eye on elected officials and the interests they often serve at our expense, but in this case I think the data is fairly accurate. In parts of Greenville, anyway, property values have seen a modest increase in value over the past year. In general, downgrading property values won't serve home owners well. One reason has to do with availability of financing. Another is resale values. Lets count our blessings. If SC home values go into a free fall, our problems will have puppies.
-Brian
Yes