MYRTLE BEACH — Work continues on a housing development in Myrtle Beach that includes townhouse-style cottages instead of the condominiums originally planned.

“This is a better plan,” Hal Dixon, one of the owners of Flagship Construction, said about building the cottages at Gulfstream Cottages. “It’s more sellable in this market. It’s the price, location and the product. They are almost like single-family homes.”

Tom Maeser, a real estate analyst for the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors, said there is more of a demand for single-family homes in the $140,000 to $250,000 price range, and because there is that need developers or builders are changing plans and building single-family houses, particularly with there still being a lot of foreclosures and investment properties that are condos in the area.

As of Thursday, 38 units out of the 40 units in the second phase of Gulfstream Cottages have sold, Dixon said.

The starting prices for the cottages, which are different bright colors and attached at the back but made to look like individual houses, range from $149,000 to $174,900.

The 51-unit development on 19th Avenue South on both sides of Yaupon Drive, which includes a pool, is on track to be completed in February or March.

The first phase -- which included 11 houses, a three-unit building and an eight-unit building -- was finished in June 2011.

Three buildings in the second phase are finished, three other buildings are under construction and another building is left to be done, Dixon said. Work is expected to begin next week on the last building, he said.

Of the three buildings under construction, one is expected to be completed in two to three weeks, Dixon said. Another is expected to be completed in 2 ½ months. And the last one is expected to be completed in 3 ½ months.

Most of the buyers – a lot from North Carolina – have bought the properties as second homes, Dixon said.

Contact JANELLE FROST at 443-2404.