Living Here | Myrtle Beach-area real estate market continuing turnaround

The 2014 Grand Strand real estate market is healthy and humming along at a clip that, by some indicators, should be considered normal.

The turnaround from the great recession began in the fall of 2012, and by last year, homes were being sold in record numbers.

This year, the market isn’t showing the same growth, but continues to clip along at those high numbers, or slightly above even. While the rest of the nation is showing a distinct downturn in 2014, the Grand Strand has seen activity increase 6.7 percent year-to-year through July.

The median price of a single-family home hit $195,000 in July, which is partly reflective of a redirection of sales more in the $200,000 and above range than $150,000 and below, which sustained Grand Strand real estate through the recession.

Interest rates remain low despite the the local activity and banks have become accustomed to new federal lending regulations and are, say some, easier for borrowers to deal with.

The Grand Strand also has been a hot bed of new home construction this year, a development that gives buyers a wider range of choices.

The hot markets through mid-year were Carolina Forest and the South Strand area.

A major freeway extension southward will only make that end of the Strand easier to get to.

The Conway market also is maintaining the strength it began showing in 2013, for those who want an inland location that’s loaded with history.

Realtors, of course, say there’s no time like now to buy a home, but that’s nothing new.

Except in this case, they could be right on.

The expectation is that 2014 will be lackluster for real estate in most of the country, with a new boom beginning in 2015.

If that materializes, the prices, and possibly the interest rates, will go no place but up.

This story was originally published September 27, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Living Here | Myrtle Beach-area real estate market continuing turnaround."