First, here’s a quick update on our area’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Since my last email on 4-3-2020, nothing has changed too much. Although SC Gov. McMaster has not issued a firm “shelter in place” order, he has told everyone to either “stay home or go to work” (if you are in an essential business). Retail stores have now been shut down in addition to amusements, barbershops, sports venues, etc. Grocery stores, hardware stores, drugstores, etc. remain open. Some golf courses also remain open, albeit with special social distancing rules. All short-term rentals are still shut down through the end of April. It appears likely that schools will remain closed for the remainder of this school year.
As of Tuesday, April 14, at 10:15 AM,
Horry County has 147 reported cases with seven reported deaths, DHEC reports.
Georgetown County has 31 reported cases with one death, DHEC reports.
South Carolina has 3439 reported cases with 87 deaths, DHEC reports.
So how has this affected our local real estate market? First of all, real estate is considered to be an essential business so most offices remain open, including ours. I’m still working a full schedule, as many agents are. As might be expected, the number of closed transactions has dropped off (way off for some segments of the market as illustrated below) but we’ve got plenty to keep us busy.
The following graphs will give you an idea of what we are experiencing locally according to MLS records. All of these show the weekly totals for particular types of transactions starting the week of March 2 for 2020 and the same weeks in 2019 (for comparison). By the way, weekly variations during 2019 probably don’t mean much – could have been the result of holidays, weather, reporting deadlines, etc. Weeks are counted Monday through Sunday.
The pandemic started to change everyone’s lives starting about March 11 or 12th. This is when March madness (college basketball) the remainder of the NBA season and pretty much all sizable public events nationwide were cancelled within a couple of days. Until then, the virus was worrisome to some people but not expected by most to have a big impact. This means that the week of March 9 -15 was the last somewhat normal week. Each graph has a vertical line drawn in to indicate this transition.
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