Wow – what a week!  After 27 years of selling real estate on Hilton Head, I have never experienced anything like last week.  Huge 700 point swings in the Dow made buyers reluctant to purchase or sell.

There is an old saying in real estate that says “a confused customer never buys”.  Nothing could have been further from the truth last week.  We had fewer properties go under contract than we have had in quite some time.  Everyone continues to ask when the market will stabilize.  Unfortunately, my crystal ball is broken and I don’t know.  One thing I will say is that I think we need about 2 weeks of the stock market being stable so buyers will have confidence that things are not going to get worse. 

A friend gave me an example the other day.  He said the reason he felt like people were not buying was because they think prices are going to drop.  For example, if you are going to buy a car next week and someone told you that in 30 days they were going to have a special rebate program where you could buy them for less, you would wait 30 days too.  I think that is what is going on in the real estate market on Hilton Head.  There are a lot of buyers that have the money, they like the properties, but they are just waiting until the market bottoms out.

I will continue to update you on the market situation.