Hurricane Irene blew by Charleston on Friday, near high tide, dropping a ton of rain, blowing trees around and breaking through the dunes in 3 or 4 places along the 18th Fairway of the Links Course at Wild Dunes. We are so lucky that the damage was minimal here along the Charleston Coast. Of course, we are thinking of those north of us that weren't so fortunate. Click here for a few photos.
I just read an interesting article in the WSJ on vacation homes and how in some markets sales activity is on the rise. So I decided to compare how the Wild Dunes market did over the past two years - 2008 versus 2009 and then 2009 versus 2010. I used only residential sales, homes and villas, no vacant home-sites were included.
Here's what I found:
There was a 12% decrease in the number of sales in 2009 versus 2008, and the average sales price was 18% lower in 2009 versus 2008.
Now, here is the interesting thing:
There was a 46% increase in the number of sales transactions in 2010 over 2009, and the average sales price was down just 3%.
Buyers watching Wild Dunes understand that prices are at 2004 levels or lower, that the inventory is moving and that sellers now more than ever are willing to negotiate. With prices and interest rates this low, more and more buyers are moving into the market. As the article in the WSJ says, "The proverbial train has left the station."
Wall Street Journal - Latest Home Price Data Is Good News for Buyers
I think this may be one of the best articles recently written on why it is the best time to buy real estate. Full of facts, not fiction - a must read for buyers who have been waiting, waiting, waiting. To read the article in full click here.
Forbes Lists Charleston as One of the World's Smartest Cities
I guess we all knew it, but now the world is in on the secret! Forbes has listed Charleston as one of the world's smartest cities. To read more about it, clickhere
There is a great new article in my November E-Newlsetter regarding the New Homebuyer Tax Credit. While it may not be right for you at this time, you might have friends and family to share it with. Click here to go to my website, then click on E-Newsletter at the top.
I don't know if any other Realtors are experiencing this or not but all of a sudden I have buyers looking at property, both investment property condos and villas in the resort areas around Charleston) and residential property...this for families that are moving to the area on a permanent basis.
Not only that, I am experiencing a lot of activity on some of my well priced listings. Guess I may have just answered my own question.
Well, to many of us, a cannonball is used to make a big splash when you jump off the dock or diving board...Mark is the best in our family. But, THIS cannonball is a horse of another color. Read on.
Surprise! Cannonball hits beach a bit too late for war
Law enforcement personnel gather around a cannonball deposited Thursday on the beach during a renourishment project at Wild Dunes.
The Post and Courier
Video
Officials examine a cannonball that came through a pipe used for a renourishment project in the Wild Dunes section of Isle of Palms. Watch »
ISLE OF PALMS — Workers heard what sounded like a large bowling ball clanging through a 3-foot-wide pipe sucking sand from the ocean.
Along with dredge spoil being used to rebuild the Isle of Palms oceanfront, the pipe spit out a historic, 128-pound cannonball. Round-the-clock crews working on the renourishment project made the discovery in the gated Wild Dunes community on Thursday morning.
"They could hear it bouncing in," Isle of Palms police Lt. Ray Wright said. "They heard it clanking through the piping around 3 a.m."
Workers used a bulldozer to move the ball to a safe spot and called police later that morning, Wright said.
Charleston County and state explosives teams examined the sphere and deemed it safe.
It turns out there wasn't much bang left; the cannonball was solid cast iron, likely fired from a 10-inch Columbiad cannon during the Civil War, said Richard W. Hatcher III, a National Park Service historian at the Fort Sumter National Monument.
Columbiads were one of the Confederates' weapons of choice when it came to large guns, Hatcher said. Possibly thousands of cannonballs like the one recovered on Thursday were fired during the conflict, particularly during the 600-day Siege of Charleston in the first half of the war, he said.
There were 15 Columbiads on Sullivan's Island at the end of the war. The cannons could hurl the 128-pound projectiles a maximum of 5,654 yards using a 20-pound charge of black powder.
Hatcher will turn the artifact over to state archaeologists.
Wright said the cannonball had traveled almost 3 miles to shore; the dredge pipe extended more than 2 1/2 miles into the ocean, and about another half mile on the beach. It wound up near the Ocean Club Villas at the far end of the island.
The beach replenishment is part of a $10 million project that extends from 53rd Avenue to Dewees Inlet. It began three weeks ago and must be finished by the end of July, a condition of state and federal permits, in part to protect the endangered loggerhead turtle.
Munitions from past conflicts turn up with regularity in the Lowcountry. In November, workers installing a heating and air-conditioning system near Market and Logan streets downtown found about a dozen softball-size cannonballs from the Civil War.
So far so good for what state Sen. Chip Campsen describes as a "creative way" to finance beach renourishment at the Isle of Palms as well as four other beaches in the state that are rated as the most endangered. The senator's legislation, which passed its first crucial test last week, doesn't involve either state or federal taxpayer funding. Instead, his Beachfront Finance Act would allow the five beach communities rated as having the worst erosion problems to keep all of their locally-generated accommodations tax dollars at home rather than sharing them with other parts of the state.
The senator tells us that he came up with the idea after being contacted by Isle of Palms officials about introducing legislation aimed at making the public beach inside the gates of the Wild Dunes resort eligible for state and federal funding. Sen. Campsen tells us he has since advised island officials that the bill, which would make changes to the definition of public beach access, stands no chance of passing.
The senator tells us he had qualms about the first bill from the outset, but felt it was his duty as the senator from the area to try to assist with the island's critical erosion problem. Meanwhile, he said, he began considering other ways to help the island save its erosion-threatened northern end that includes the Wild Dunes properties. The result was the Beachfront Finance Act that got a unanimous nod from a Senate Finance subcommittee Tuesday. Basically, the bill removes the so-called "Robin Hood" provision from the state accommodations tax for the five beach communities that are rated as having the most critical erosion problem. That annual rating would be done by the state Office of Coastal Resource Management.
The state's accommodations tax has a complex "Robin Hood" formula that guarantees those counties with virtually no public accommodations a minimum rebate that comes from the "donor" counties that bring in the most funds. The Campsen legislation would allow the top five endangered beach communities to keep all of their accommodations tax to combat beach erosion. Sen. Campsen estimated that would mean an estimated $95,000 annually for the Isle of Palms. Those funds, he said, are critical to finance the proposed $2 million bond issue island officials hope to issue to deal primarily with the beach problem at Wild Dunes.
Sen. Campsen convincingly argues that it is only fair to allow the island communities that face the worse erosion problems to keep all the accommodations tax their facilities generate. To require those communities to share some of their funds with other counties would be equivalent to asking New Orleans to send some of the money it needs for hurricane relief elsewhere, he said.
The senator tells us that he was particularly encouraged by the reception the bill got from the subcommittee that was composed of Upstate senators, including some whose counties would lose some of the "Robin Hood" funds. He advised Isle of Palms Mayor Mike Sottille by letter that those senators "understood the dire predicament many coastal communities are in, and the equity contained in the bill." He also cautioned, however, that the legislation "still has a long way to go" before it becomes law.
The legislation certainly has equity on its side. Clearly the accommodations tax is an appropriate source of funding for beach renourishment since it is paid by those who come to visit the communities in question primarily because of their location and access to the water. Sen. Campsen now is on the right course.
Isle of Palms aims to get rolling on beach renourishment by spring By Prentiss Findlay (Contact) The Post and Courier Tuesday, January 15, 2008
ISLE OF PALMS — Construction of a new beach that would offer protection to dozens of condominiums threatened by tides at the erosion-scarred northeast end of the island is likely to begin six months earlier than projected, officials said Monday.
"Obviously, time is of the essence. We were advised that we should request an earlier start time if possible," said Tim Kana, president of Coastal Science & Engineering of Columbia.
Kana said regulatory agencies suggested moving the project start time up to spring. "I think it's doable," he said. The city on Monday asked state Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and the Army Corps of Engineers to approve pumping up to 885,000 cubic yards of sand on 2.6 miles of beach from 47th Avenue to Dewees Inlet, according to a copy of the new application. The endangered homes are at the northern reach of the project, toward the inlet. Previously, the project was expected to start in November.
The city's estimated 20 percent share of the cost of the $9.7 million project could change after the project is bid and a contractor selected, said City Manager Linda Lovvorn Tucker. Wild Dunes, where the worst erosion threatens condos, would pay $6.8 million through its affected property owners, the Wild Dunes Community Association and Wild Dunes Resort.
"We're very confident that we will be able to obtain the balance of the full amount of the project," said Dave Kynoski, association general manager.
Meanwhile, a temporary restraining order is set to expire today that was won by Wild Dunes property owners to keep OCRM from removing sandbags from in front of six condominium complexes and two other properties. Lawyers have scheduled a conference for Thursday, and the regulatory agency won't take any action before then, Dan Burger, OCRM communications director, said in an e-mail.
The city met with Charleston County Council and sent a letter to OCRM regarding their possible funding of the effort to address the erosion problem, but it hasn't gotten a response from, Tucker said.
City Council on Thursday approved a plan to borrow $2,013,500 for the project using hospitality and accommodations tax revenue. Mayor Mike Sottile said OCRM is providing guidance to the town on the accelerated schedule for the beach renourishment project. Although much of the erosion-scarred beach up for replenishment is at gated Wild Dunes, the beach renourishment is an important effort for the entire island, he said.
"Two years from now, we could have erosion at Breach Inlet. We're breaking new ground here as far as what we're doing. We're setting a precedent," he said.
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources made recommendations regarding the depth and location of the underwater digging that have been incorporated in the revised application, which also includes U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service draft recommendations that the beach renourishment project happen outside the main turtle nesting and hatching season. The agency also suggests that contributions be made to the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge Turtle Project to offset impacts to loggerhead sea turtles. The USFWS says the contractor can put sand on the affected area of beach only once during the project.
I just wanted to share with you this brief YouTube video, which in a way allows me to remind myself (and you) that living on the coast can be a magical thing. Click the play button and enjoy.
You know the old adage: nothing is really free. Well, this time I must disagree. I have 4 great lot listings that come with the homes thrown in. Check them out here. All are listed at or slightly above lot value with perfectly liveable homes included. How can you beat that?! Two of them actually have tenants, so for you investors out there, this is a win win situation. Let me know which ones you would like to see and when!
As the days start getting a little shorter now, some mornings you can begin to see, sometimes even feel a bit of Fall coming here to the Lowcountry. We live in such a beautiful place, especially on mornings like this one.
The morning's Post and Courier carries this front page headline: Sullivan's Is. among priciest ZIP codes.
Seems Forbes reports this kind of thing, and 29482 is the 70th on the "magazine's annual ranking of U.S. housing prices." Need proof? "In mid-August," says the newspaper's article, "a sales record was set when New York businessman Todd Boehly paid $4.72 million for a 4,500 square-foot, six-bedroom Atlantic Avenue house on an oceanfront lot."
The high end of the market is still doing pretty well here, though the smart investor may have a few more options than usual.
By the way, the Isle of Palms and Charleston were ranked by Forbes at 199th and 327th, respectively.
About Betty Poore's Charleston Coast, SC Real Estate Website: The www.charlestoncoasthomefinder.com web site provides Charleston, Seabrook Island, Kiawah Island, Folly Beach, James Island, Sullivans Island, Isle of Palms, Dewees Island, Daniel Island, Mount Pleasant and the Charleston Coast, South Carolina real estate information and resources to guide homeowners, homebuyers and real estate investors through the process of selling and buying a house, condo or other realty property in the Charleston Coast area. Betty Poore Sometimes spelled as Bettye, Betti, Bettie, Bety, Beti, Betie, Poor, Pore, Porre, Pour, or Poure has services to help you get the best value for your Charleston Coast home and this website offers home buyers and home sellers a superior comparative market analysis (CMA), a way to view real estate and MLS IDX listings including virtual tours, prepare your home for sale, and more. Investors looking for real estate investment properties to invest in need look no farther. Anyone selling a home, buying a home or seeking housing can learn more about our realty services, and will appreciate working with a Charleston Coast REALTOR who knows the area so well. Through trusted partners, we also provide real estate and financial services to consumers looking for houses for sale or selling their home in Charleston Coast, SC, such as mortgages, credit history, new homes, foreclosures and other services. If you've already tried to go the for sale by owner (FSBO) route and find you are needing a partner who you can trust in the sale of your most precious asset, Betty Poore can take care of your special needs. It really doesn't matter if you spell it REALTOR, Realator or Realter, realty, realety or reality, real estate or realestate, Betty speaks your language.
