Real estate is looking good for homeowners and buyers throughout South Carolina. That’s the outlook from University of South Carolina economist Joey Von Nessen, who spoke recently to investors and realtors at the annual Year in Review and Residential Market Update, held in January in North Charleston. That’s good news for owners of Real Estate IRAs, who have chosen to commit retirement assets to direct ownership of real estate in order to take advantage of the asset protection, tax free or tax-deferred income and capital gains on real estate rent and capital appreciation.

Von Nessen has partnered with Stephen Slifer, another economist and former Wall Street forecaster, who has started a Daniel Island firm called NumberNomics. While economic growth seems to be leveling off in South Carolina, things still look positive for Real Estate IRAs. South Carolina has enjoyed consistent employment growth over the past year. “That’s good news for housing,” said Von Nessen.” “You can’t get buy a house if you don’t have a job.” So

South Carolina has also benefited from hourly earnings growth of 4.4 percent through October 2016.

Contributing to the bull market in Charleston-area real estate: The planned construction of a half a dozen new high-end hotels, all in the Charleston City market. The construction of these hotels may lead to a series of broader property improvements to the area, as zoning commissions lean on developers to provide traffic and other quality of life improvements as a condition of approving construction.

This should benefit real estate IRA owners who are able to establish themselves in nearby commercial and real estate properties alike, as house prices and commercial space prices through out the area should benefit from the increased economic activity.

Projections

Von Nessen’s research is projecting home sales growth to decline somewhat in 2017, but still post a robust growth of 8.1 percent for the Charleston metro area.  That comes on top of home sales growth of 11.9 percent last year and 17.9 percent in the prior year. So we’re still seeing growth, but on a more sustainable, rational level. Likewise with median home price increases, which slipped from 6.2 percent in 2015 to 4.6 percent last year.

That 4.6 percent, however, is roughly in line with long-term historic averages for residential house-price appreciation. It’s also not far from median mortgage rates in today’s market – another factor which tends to buoy demand for real estate.

Realtors at the conference indicated that while they have seen some reduction in demand for higher-end houses up to $500,000, houses priced around $200,000 are still selling quickly, thanks in part to major employers such as Volvo and Boeing continuing to move into the area or expand their operations.

American IRA, LLC is among the nation’s leading experts at providing administrative services to owners of Real Estate IRAs. With offices in Charlotte and Asheville, NC, we have a particularly strong footprint in the southeastern United States, including both North and South Carolina.

For more information, call us today at 866-7500-IRA(472), or contact us via our website at www.americanira.com. There you’ll find a wealth of informative and educational articles and custom publications on all aspects of self-directed IRA investing, including Real Estate IRAs, 401(k)s, SEPs, gold and precious metals and others.