The Savannah metro real estate market saw a welcome finish to spring with a 5 percent increase in unit sales over last May, according to data from the Savannah Multilist Corporation.
A total of 485 homes sold in May in the Savannah metro area, including Bryan, Effingham and Chatham counties, compared to 461 homes last year.
“We had a strong finish to the spring market with a lot of positive news,” said Jennifer Scroggs, president of the Savannah Area Realtors.
Scroggs said beside unit sales, median sales prices also were up, ending at $185,000 compared to $183,900 last May.
“The largest area of growth that I noted was in new home contracts,” said Scroggs. “It looks like that number increased 85 percent year-to-year, with increases in all three counties.”
The improved pace of new home sales is reflected in the fact that this time last year, new homes under contract in the three counties totaled 348 compared to 463 at present.
Inventory, meanwhile, averaged 6.7 months of available supply, down slightly from 7.3 last month.
Savannah has maintained a six- to seven-month inventory spread fairly consistently through the spring. Any higher and prices will begin to soften, any lower and prices will go up, according to industry analysts.
The top performing ZIP codes, as a percentage of growth, were downtown, Tybee and Effingham, according to Multilist data that tracks sub-markets in Savannah.
Ron Melander, a realtor with Keller Williams Savannah Downtown, said he’s seen increased activity in the Historic Landmark District.
“Things in the $500,000 to $795,000 range are pretty hot right now,” said Melander. “There are a lot of units either recently sold or under contract, and there’s not a huge inventory in that price range either.”
He said there’s a been a trend over the last couple of years in which dilapidated homes and empty lots that had sat untouched for decades are being renovated or filled in with new construction.
For example, he said, four townhomes priced in the $500,000 range and completed just last year on Tattnall have all sold.
“There’s a huge change in the last year or so in the psychology of what’s going,” he said. “There’s a real upbeat attitude, with investors planning to break ground on projects.”
ON THE WEB
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