December 2010 Midlands Real Estate Update

New Development:
Tractor Supply Company recently purchased 4 acres on Killian Road near I-77. Construction is underway.

Below is the December 2010 summary of Richland and Lexington County real estate transactions by property type and quarter. Note that all Q4-2010 transactions are accounted for around February 2011.

	Number of Transactions
Property Types	2009	Q1-2010	Q2-2010	Q3-2010	Q4-2010
Single Family	7,388	1,540	2,327	1,781	592
Condo / Townhouse	557	104	169	144	42
Duplex / Triplex / Quad	99	17	32	25	4
Auto Related	18	1	4	3	4
Hotel / Motel	1	1	1
Land	3,685	905	1,189	854	370
Mobile Home	228	55	41	60	19
Multifamily	14		1	7
Office	67	17	19	23	3
Restaurant	19	3	11	3	3
Service Station	7	1		1
Shopping Center / Strip	6	2	1	2
Special Use	27	6	6	1	6
Store / Retail / C-Store	59	7	17	8	9
Warehouse	35	4	12	12	4
Foreclosures	1,030	437	291	345	160
REOs	1,144	285	312	283	98

Sales data based on county assessor-provided information; includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!

-Terry Peterson, PMP

November 2010 Midlands Real Estate Update

Below is the November 2010 summary of Richland and Lexington County real estate transactions by property type and quarter.

	Number of Transactions
Property Types	2009	Q1-2010	Q2-2010	Q3-2010	Q4-2010
Single Family	7,388	1,540	2,320	1,566	63
Condo / Townhouse	557	104	168	119	6
Duplex / Triplex / Quad	99	17	32	25	1
Auto Related	18	1	4	3
Hotel / Motel	1	1	1
Land	3,685	905	1,170	702	25
Mobile Home	228	55	41	47
Multifamily	14		1	6
Office	67	17	19	20
Restaurant	19	3	11	3
Service Station	7	1
Shopping Center / Strip	6	2	1	1
Special Use	27	6	6	1
Store / Retail / C-Store	59	7	16	6	1
Warehouse	35	4	12	12	1
Foreclosures	1,030	437	290	283	8
REOs	1,144	285	311	262	16

Sales data based on county assessor-provided information; includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!

-Terry Peterson, PMP

October 2010 Midlands Real Estate Update

Below is the October 2010 summary of Richland and Lexington County real estate transactions by property type and quarter.

	Number of Transactions
Property Types	2009	Q1-2010	Q2-2010	Q3-2010
Single Family	7,388	1,540	2,098	1,080
Condo / Townhouse	557	104	156	71
Duplex / Triplex / Quad	99	17	29	18
Auto Related	18	1	3	1
Hotel / Motel	1	1	1
Land	3,685	905	1,102	446
Mobile Home	228	55	34	29
Multifamily	14		1	5
Office	67	17	16	16
Restaurant	19	3	9	1
Service Station	7	1
Shopping Center / Strip	6	2	1	1
Special Use	27	6	6
Store / Retail / C-Store	59	7	15	4
Warehouse	35	4	13	10
Foreclosures	1,030	437	283	213
REOs	1,144	285	305	199

425
Sales data based on county assessor-provided information; includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!

-Terry Peterson, PMP

September 2010 Feature Update on MidlandsTrends.com

The homepage of MidlandsTrends.com features a new transactions table summarizing the number of sales by property type and quarter. High-level trends over the prior year and quarter-to-quarter are immediately noticeable, such as the very low volume of Auto-Related and Multifamily transaction in 2010 thus far compared to 2009.

	Number of Transactions
Property Types	2009	Q1-2010	Q2-2010	Q3-2010	Q4-2010
Single Family	7,388	1,541	2,065	646
Condo / Townhouse	557	104	154	48
Duplex / Triplex / Quad	99	17	29	9
Auto Related	18	1	3	1
Hotel / Motel	1	1	1
Land	3,685	904	1,081	271
Mobile Home	228	55	33	17
Multifamily	14		1
Office	67	17	16	9
Restaurant	19	3	9	1
Service Station	7	1
Shopping Center / Strip	6	2	1	1
Special Use	27	6	6
Store / Retail / C-Store	59	7	15	4
Warehouse	35	4	13	6
Foreclosures	965	404	260	105
REOs	1,100	273	284	118

425

Sales data based on county assessor-provided information; includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!

-Terry Peterson, PMP

May 2010 Update & $3.1M Senior Living Facility REO Sale

The Midlands are seeing a slight up-tick in single family residential sales from the start of the year, but land sales are rather stagnant. Commercial property sales for Richland and Lexington doubled from January to February. According to market surveys, cap rate trends are slightly down nationally across multiple property types which should speak to a more stable rest of the year.


The largest sale of the month for February was the Richland Pines Senior Living Facility at 651 Polo Road on a REO sale from Palmetto Bank for $3.1M. This price has been verified by the deed on public record. Palmetto Bank took this property into ownership August '09.







January closed out with 166 foreclosure and REO transactions, with only one commercial property in the mix (a triplex in Olympia mentioned last month). February was a bit worse with 207 foreclosures/REOs, including a restaurant on Platt Springs Road, two duplex/triplex properties and a retail/warehouse location on Ball Park Road pictured below.


Sales data based on county assessor-stated sales prices; includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!

-Terry Peterson, PMP

April 2010 Update & $500,000 Office Sale

Richland and Lexington County seem to be experiencing a slow start to 2010 after a strong December. So far, the Midlands largest transaction dollar-wise for January 2010 is the sale of 5351 Sunset Blvd in Lexington for $500,000, a two story office building of approximately 3,100 SF built in 1996 according to the assessor's property cards.






We've also had our first REO sale of the year, a 1900+ SF triplex at the corner of Whitney Street and Maryland St. just off Olympia; purchased from Fannie Mae.

Sales data based on county assessor-stated sales prices; includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!


-Terry Peterson, PMP

Appealing Assessed Values in the Market Trough - Crickentree

Someone I know very well is going to appeal their property taxes with Richland County this week. No names or exact addresses will be given for the sake of privacy, but the property in question is in the Crickentree subdivision just south of Blythewood. To assist, I pulled a list of sales from the area using MidlandsTrends.com to find some interesting yet obvious results.

Market Statistics
Keeping in mind that MidlandsTrends.com includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transactions; the average price per square foot for transactions in Crickentree have been as follows:

• 2007 - $128 per square foot
  
• 2008 - $107 per square foot
  
• 2009 - $102 per square foot
  

To put this into perspective, an average size home of 3,500 SF in Crickentree would have a 'value' of $448,000 in 2007, $374,500 in 2008 and $357,000 in 2009 based on the averages above.

The house in reference is currently assessed with a market value of $127/SF; put another way it is assessed at the peak value of the market. Though these numbers do not take into account any adjustment for amenities, size, age, etc. let's just say this house is exactly "on par" with the other homes in the neighborhood.

What is "Market Value" Today?
Of the sales that have occurred in Crickentree in 2009, roughly 20% are foreclosures (banks taking back a property) or REO sales (banks selling a foreclosed property). Now, an agent using only the MLS may not know of these foreclosure/REO transactions and therefore put a higher value on a property in Crickentree. There's no question if you're selling a house in Crickentree you will want to sell your house at a price point determined without consideration of REO sales. However, if you're in the market to purchase an up-scale home in Crickentree, why would you pay 'full market' asking price for a house when 20% of your new neighbors purchased their homes directly from a bank at a lower price point.

Obviously sellers would not want to consider REO sales in their 'market value' estimate while buyers would want to consider them. Buy low, sell high; right? At what point do REO's, short-sales, etc. need to be considered when determining market value? When 20% of the transactions in a neighborhood consist of such sales? 30%? 40%?

Back to the house in which the assessed 'market value' is being appealed... It will be interesting to see how the assessor views "market value" when presented with the data provided by MidlandsTrends.com. We will post an update as soon as we know the results.

Interested in details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search

Search Foreclosure & REO Transactions

We've recently made some major changes to the MidlandsTrends.com database! We've added a "Foreclosure & REO Search" form available to FREE and Upgraded users. Search by the following:

• Richland or Lexington County
• Transaction Date Range
• Foreclosure and/or REO Transaction
• Property Type: Residential, Land or Commercial

Upgraded users are able to download the list of foreclosures and REOs to a spreadsheet for further analyzing and research. Use this new tool to estimate liquidation value, price a fire sale, search for potential investments, etc.

Having owned investment property, in the past I've used all the highly marketed online tools such as RealtyTrac.com and Foreclosure.com. Typically I'd cancelled my accounts within weeks after learning how out-dated or inaccurate the data was. More than a few times I'd emailed both services to clarify inaccuracy's in the data I received; the response was usually vague and did not resolve my issue. MidlandsTrends.com is based on actual transactions recorded at the county.

-Terry Peterson, PMP

March 2010 Update

Richland County finally came through with posting their year-end real estate data and they had a huge Q4 in 2009. December was Richland County's and Lexington County's busiest month for commercial real estate transactions, 31 for Richland and 17 for Lexington. In dollar-volume, both county's ended the year with the their most lucrative months totaling $270M in real estate transactions.






Sales data based on county assessor-stated sales prices, includes FSBO, Foreclosure and REO transaction. Please read our disclaimer regarding real estate transaction data.

Interested in for details on specific transactions?
Visit MidlandsTrends.com and register for FREE access to search our real estate sales database, including FSBO sales, foreclosure and REO search!

-Terry Peterson, PMP

February 2010 Update

Register / Log-In to our Midlands Trends real estate sales database, it's free!

Lexington County had a very strong December in commercial real estate with 15 transactions. That may not sound like much, but it's the second busiest month for commercial activity in the county for the year. Lexington also boasted the most real estate activity for the year dollar-volume-wise in December with $99 million in transactions.






*September through December represent partial data; includes FSBO and REO transactions

A new metric we'll begin to track is average price per square foot for single-family residences sold in Lexington and Richland County, in the chart above. A cursory looks says these numbers are too low to be correct; but a further inspection gives the explanation. Over 600 single-family property transactions in these two counties consisted of foreclosures, that's an average of >25 foreclosures per month in each county. The flip side is that a large number of single-family property transactions involved individuals and investors buying REO's from the lenders at a reduced rate; both phenomena lending to a lower than typical price per square foot ratio.

Though it's no secret to real estate professionals, this chart also backs the theory that May, June, July and August are the best months to sell a home with consistently higher prices per square foot. The boost in prices and number of sales at year end is assuredly attributable to the Home Buyers Tax Credit. With the tax credit's extension through April 30, 2010 (good on purchased closed through June 30, 2010), we can expect this artificial rise in home prices to trail off come mid-2010.

-Terry Peterson, PMP


Visit MidlandsTrends.com to register for your free account today and to see larger versions of these charts.

January 2010 Update

Register / Log-In to our Midlands Trends real estate sales database, it's free!

Lexington County single family property and land sales appeared to remain reasonably strong through the end of 2009, with commercial activity maxing out in January and September. Richland County is continuing to update their information so possibly by the next monthly release we'll have a better comparison. It's looking like the Midlands will close out the year with approximately 10,000 property transactions and $1.4B in activity.

*Partial data

Visit MidlandsTrends.com to register for your free account today and to see larger versions of these charts.