Charleston Housing Market Healing

The outlook for jobs and the housing market go hand-in-hand, and both are recovering slowly but steadily.

InSouth Carolina’s metropolitan areas, unemployment is below the state and national averages, and first-time unemployment claims statewide are back at pre-recession levels.

Home prices statewide increased slightly — for the first time since 2008 — during the first quarter of this year, compared to a year earlier, as the economy continued to slowly improve.

South Carolinawas among 32 states, plus theDistrict of Columbia, where prices ticked up, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency.

While prices may be stabilizing, over a five-year period ending March 31 home prices are down 12 percent in South Carolina and more than 19 percent nationwide, based on FHFA reports on same-home sales.

New home sales have been noticeably stronger this year in the greaterCharlestonarea. In some specific price ranges and locations, such as the under-$450,000 range inMount Pleasant, the supply of new homes is now limited.

The pace of job growth going forward will be the key to a housing-market recovery. Demand for homes has been reduced because new households are being formed at below-average rates. In other words, people who might buy homes are instead living with relatives or roommates.

The Census Bureau reported Wednesday that there were 22 million sharedU.S.households in 2010, an 11.4 percent increase from 2007.

WhenSouth Carolinareturns to pre-recession employment levels, which Von Nessen suggested could happen between 2013 and 2015, adults who have been living with friends and relatives will go out and form households of their own

The pace of economic recovery and job growth is the big question.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday sharply lowered its outlook forU.S.economic growth and predicted that the national unemployment rate won’t fall much more this year.