Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010

Magazine bullish on Myrtle Beach real estate

Residents, building permits on the rise

The local real estate market may seem to some to be near the bottom of a hole, but one trade magazine expects it to find the ladder in the next year and begin its climb back to the top.

Builder magazine recently ranked Myrtle Beach among the top 20 "healthiest housing markets for 2010," along with six other towns in the Carolinas. The magazine cited the area's continuing influx of new residents and a recent increase in building permits as reasons it's expected to spring out its recent doldrums.

Fred Coyne, the president of the Horry-Georgetown Home Builders Association, said he is not surprised to see Myrtle Beach ranked as one of the healthiest housing markets this year.

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  The number of building permits issued for residential new construction in Horry and Georgetown counties in the first half of the year is up about 36 percent from the same period in 2009, according to Market Opportunity Research Enterprises, a company that tracks the housing market. But while the Strand as a whole showed improvement, Georgetown County issued fewer permits in the first half of the year.

  "We're not getting necessarily run over by folks, but we still are working, which is good," said Fred Coyne, president of the Horry Georgetown Home Builders Association.

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"We live in a great place, you know, and a lot of this comes back to the beach itself," he said. "Our natural environment is the initial draw, but when [people] start looking around they say we've got low property taxes; and because of our tourism industry here, we have the amenities of much larger cities."

Myrtle Beach's appeal and the pent up demand to move to the area persists despite the tough economic times, Coyne said.

Builder magazine ranked Charleston fifth, Myrtle Beach 15th and Greenville 19th in its listing of healthiest markets in the nation for 2010. Seven of the 20 "relatively hot markets" were in the Carolinas.

Mark Nix, executive officer of the Home Builders of South Carolina, said getting people happy and thriving in South Carolina is tied to jobs, quality of life and affordable housing. Charleston has done a very good job at bringing jobs to the market, he said, especially with the new Boeing plant and its ripple effects.

Nix said Myrtle Beach, a "mecca" for tourism, is continuing to attract a lot of new residents from other parts of the country.

The last few years were challenging for builders on the Grand Strand, with many having to make serious cuts to stay afloat, but things started to turn around in late 2009, when there was an uptick in new building.

"I think as the year goes on I think we're going to see a gradual build in sales, in building activity," Coyne said.

Retirees, who still want to move to the area, will be a driving force in the growth of the housing market, said Susan Martin, the director of sales and marketing for the Lennar Corp. in Myrtle Beach.

While selling their current homes is still preventing some retirees from moving to the warmer climate in Myrtle Beach, others are taking advantage of the low real estate prices and finding a way, often through a home equity line on their permanent residence, to buy a retirement home, she said.

"I really feel that the growth is out there," Martin said. "We as builders need to not be afraid to build inventory homes for people to come and buy."

So far sales this year for Lennar in Myrtle Beach are up significantly from 2009 and point to an even better spring and summer season, she said.

"I think the whole key to the business is not listening to the negative publicity that's out there and forging ahead to make a difference," Martin said. "I do think that's what a lot of people have done. I think that we as a town have done that. We as a city have done that."

The Greenville News contributed to this report.