COLUMBIA, S.C. — A new report from real estate company Redfin, ranks Columbia 10th in the nation for home value growth.
While that’s good for home owners or sellers, some home-buyers say they’ve struggled to find and secure a home in the market.
Lorrie and Al Pospischils say they sold their house within a week of listing it.
“We had three people look at it and we accepted the first offer, which was pretty darn close to asking,” Lorries said.
It took them three years to find a new house.
“We had to go with a renovation,” Lorrie said.
“We couldn't find anything that was move-in ready,” Al said. “That we were comfortable with price-wise, because everything was pretty high.”
The latest report from Redfin says Columbia is in the top ten housing markets in U.S. with the largest increase in home values in the month of June.
The report says prices rose by 7.1%, due to the low supply of houses that buyers like the Pospischils describe.
William Odinsson bought his first house in Columbia in March, after moving from Virginia.
“We were really only looking for a month and a half maybe,” Odinsson said. “Because, you know, the shopping window is so small for houses. It's not like, pick one you want and then it'll still be there six months later.”
Though Odinsson didn’t move here specifically for the housing market, he’s seen the difference between Columbia's market and where he’s from.
“As far as the, like, supply- it didn't really seem that there was too much of a difference,” Odinsson said. “As far as the prices, Northern Virginia is maybe a half hour, 45 minutes from DC. And everything is- within my understanding and my own knowledge of it- is relatively double the price of anything around here.”
Karl Radley is a realtor in the area. He says the changing interest rates we’ve been seeing are part of the reason for a surge in Columbia's home values. Despite the measured value growth, Radley says not every buyer is struggling.
“You're still seeing a lot of houses that go on the market getting the attention, you know, that they were seeing a few months ago,” Radley said. “But it's still going to be a lot of competition. You're still seeing, you know, full price offers or offers going over.”
Radley says overall home values in South Carolina remain below the national average, and that affordability is driving more demand.
“Demand is definitely higher than the supply right now,” Radley said. “Even though interest rates have driven out a bunch of those opportunistic buyers, people are still moving to Columbia. Columbia is still growing. Columbia is still behind the national average trends of home prices, affordability, cost of living.”