Much of the country is suffering from the cancellation of the federal home buyer tax credit, with sales falling and prices plummeting. The Grand Strand area, though, are not suffering as bad a fate as the big metropolitan areas. Though sales and prices are also wavering in the said area, the drop is not as drastic as others.
The Grand Strand area, however, is not affected by the same things as typical real estate areas. The market it attracts includes second-home buyers and investors. So when the tax credit was introduced, it did not really create much of a boost in home sales for the area. This is also the reason there’s not much of a dent in the July sales for Grand Strand.
In the Myrtle Beach area, single family home sales in July this year are down by 7% vis-a-vis July 2009; condos sales, on the other hand, are down by 4%. Exit Grand Strand Real Estate Realtor Jerry Pinkas says this is but a normal thing for them and that they are not worried that further drop will occur because of the tax credit cancellation. The area’s Realtors, after all, have the beach to keep attracting buyers.