What your money can buy in Myrtle Beach area

Adva Saldinger - asaldinger@thesunnews.com

Home prices along the Grand Strand continue to decline as short sales and foreclosures persist, and for some buyers this creates the chance to get a house they thought was out of reach.

The median home price - the price where half of homes sold for more and half of homes sold for less - was $176,000 this past quarter, down 12 percent from the same period last year, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

The declining median price is partly because lower-priced houses are selling at a higher rate - 74.7 percent of homes along the Grand Strand sold for less than $250,000 this year, according to Site Tech Systems, a local company that tracks the real estate market.

The low prices mean Laura Barr, who is buying a new house, can afford the house she wants that is bigger and closer to the beach than ones in her price range a few years ago.

When she started looking for a new house, she found herself in aneighborhood she wouldn't have looked at when she was last buying a house, she said.

"They were houses we could not afford to buy two or three years ago when they first came out," Barr said.

Barr estimated that they are buying the house for $20,000 to $40,000 less than its original selling price. "We definitely feel we're getting more for our money," she said.

Buyers are getting more features - such as granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and a fenced yard - that they would not have gotten for less than $150,000 a few years ago, said Jessie Kelly with Prudential Burroughs & Chapin Realty.

In today's market, people are looking for great deals, so houses at the lower price ranges are moving fairly quickly, she said.

"The price points and the incentives make it easier for the first-time home buyers to get into something in this range than something that is priced higher," Kelly said.

The first-time home buyers tax credit is helping that lower-priced end of the market, especially because it is set to expire soon, said Jason Mahood of Coldwell Banker Chicora. First-time homebuyers can get as much as an $8,000 tax credit under the program, but must have the deal finalized by Dec. 1.

"Homes you can have at a bargain price are being bought up rather quickly," he said.

Mahood said he has seen the change in value of properties in the Grand Strand.

A house he sold to the current owner in 2006 for $249,000 is now on the market for $205,000, and he sees that kind of decline in price across the board, he said.

Realtors trying to sell homes at the higher price levels, which attract more investors and second-home buyers, are finding it difficult to find buyers.

In many cases they have to slash prices, said Susanne Bair, a Realtor with Century 21 Boling and Associates.

She reduced the price on one property by $50,000 after there was little interest in the first month it was on the market.

"It's a technique to show people it's negotiable, to show we understand what's going on in the market," Bair said.

She has sold homes in Briarcliffe Acres for 10 years and has seen prices drop since the peak a few years ago. The days when a buyer could make upgrades and resell a house for twice what they bought it are gone, she said.