I was watching Fox News last night and Shepard Smith was giving a report on the real estate market.  He said the good news is that home sales in the United States were up 2.3% in April of 2009 compared to April of 2008.  On Hilton Head our increase was a little more than that.

He went on to say that the bad news is that prices had dropped 15.5% from the same month a year ago.  We found that to be true on Hilton Head Island.  The point he was making in his newscast was that people are buying the deals and a lot of sellers are dropping their prices because of the slowness in the market.  Buyers are saying “make me a deal and I’ll buy, and if you do not make me a deal I won’t buy” .  We have definitely seen this in Hilton Head Island real estate.

Our average sales price in April of 2008 was $1,054,473 and the average sales price in April of 2009 was $729,827.  We are heading in the same direction as the rest of the country. 

What does this mean?  If you are a buyer, you can get a deal.  If you are a seller, unless you give a buyer a deal – you won’t sell.  Buyers are waiting for deals.