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As Scarlett O’Hara’s father lectured her, “Land. It’s the only thing that matters. It’s the only thing that lasts.”
In the period 2000-2001 there were 168 homes in the Charleston region that sold for $1 million and up, 57 of them south of Broad Street on the Charleston peninsula.
“The market is strong,” says Joanie Lucas-Harth, realtor for Historic Properties of Charleston, “and everything over $2 million and up is selling.”
Ms. Lucas-Harth, a realtor for 21 years, started Historic Charleston properties along with Vida Robertson and Catherine Lazenby. Their real estate niche business lists upper-end, historical properties along the Charleston peninsula.
Ms. Lucas-Harth had the good fortune to be the listing agent and sales agent for last year’s top selling home listed on the Multiple Listing Services in Charleston-a grand Georgian mansion on Orange Street in Charleston that sold for $4.075 million.
“When the first million house sold here years ago I remember it was a big deal,” Lucas-Harth says. “Now you can’t find a decent house for a million. It’s almost like $2 million is the norm.”
This year, Lucas-Harth says, Historic Charleston Properties has already sold several houses in the $3 million range and asking prices soar to the $10 million mark. The highest price in the downtown area is an asking price of $6.95 million.
“Property values have been extraordinary,” concurs Bill Roettger broker of Carolina Prudential Real Estate.
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emember back when the thought of spending a million dollars on a home translated into a vision of a movie star’s Beverly Hills mansion or palatial estate on the Gold Coast of Long Island? These days that million dollars would be a nice down payment on some of the properties that sold along the Carolina coast in 2000 and 2001. Among the Charleston, Kiawah Island, Myrtle Beach, Beaufort and Hilton Head areas, the top selling price paid for a home or lot reached over $7.5 million.