How's the Market? That is the number one question people ask me when they want to talk about real estate. As you can imagine, it is a difficult question, because the real estate market is nuanced. At the start, the question of the market needs to be drilled down to an area. The national real estate market as a whole can have places with a tremendous amount of sales and appreciation, or places with a struggling real estate market. The factors can blend to show a national pattern, but not a focused one. Of course, most of the people who ask me the question are looking specifically at the local market. Even as we look locally, the number of filters applied continues to be a large driver.
Right now in Charleston County, the story at that level is one of tightening supply meeting steady demand. Year to date, new listings priced $1 million and up are down 7.3% from this time last year, while closed sales in that same tier are actually up 8.7%. That combination is pushing the median sold price higher, from $1.53 million a year ago to $1.66 million now, an increase of 8.5%. Buyers shopping above $1 million are working with fewer choices, and the ones who are closing are paying more to do it. Zoom into just the last few months and that pattern gets even sharper, new listings above $1 million fell nearly 19% year over year in the third quarter alone, even as sales kept climbing.
Push that filter even further, to $2 million and up, and the tightening compounds. Closed sales in that tier are up 30.6% year to date, the fastest growth of any slice in this report, while new listings are up a more modest 10.9%. That's still positive, unlike the $1 million-and-up segment as a whole, but it isn't keeping pace with demand. The typical sold price in this tier is holding roughly flat, around $2.9 million in both years, while the typical list price has climbed from about $2.95 million to $3.09 million, up roughly 5%. And $2 million-plus activity is claiming a bigger share of the million-dollar-plus market itself: it accounted for 30% of $1M+ closed sales a year ago and 36% now, and 37% of $1M+ new listings a year ago versus nearly 45% now. The very top of the market isn't just moving faster than the rest of Charleston County, it's moving faster than the rest of the million-dollar tier it sits inside.
Now step back and look at the county as a whole, every price point included, and the picture changes. Overall, Charleston County saw both sales and new listings increase this year, up 6.6% and 4.1% respectively, but the median sold price barely moved, up less than 2%. The broader market is healthy and active, but it isn't getting meaningfully more expensive for the typical buyer. The appreciation and the tightening are concentrated well above the middle of the market, not spread evenly across it and the higher up you filter, the more concentrated it gets.
That's the answer I keep coming back to when someone asks how the market is doing. It depends entirely on where you're standing in it, and how tightly you draw the filter. Shop closer to the middle and you're in a market with more activity but a much steadier price. Shop above $1 million and you're in a market with real competition and climbing prices. Shop above $2 million and that competition sharpens further still. All of those are true descriptions of Charleston real estate at the same time, which is exactly why the question never has a one-sentence answer.
