Sometimes the story behind a sold sign includes a few months of patience, a willingness to make changes, and an ongoing conversation about lightbulbs.

That was certainly true of my seller's condo at 1508 Basildon Road in The Battery at Park West. This one-bedroom home in Mount Pleasant had plenty to appreciate, but helping buyers see it meant paying attention to how it felt when they walked through the door.

Before we listed, he decluttered and had the condo cleaned. He also put in brighter lightbulbs for the listing photographs. Everything was ready for its introduction to buyers. Then, the next thing I knew, the dim lightbulbs were back in.

I had to smile. He knew what he liked living with, and I understood that. But the lighting that feels comfortable when you are relaxing at home can create a different impression for someone seeing it for the first time. I kept encouraging him to give buy...

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September is often treated as the beginning of the slower season in real estate. Summer vacations are ending, children are back in school, and the holidays suddenly do not seem very far away. For Charleston County homeowners considering a move, that can create an understandable question: Are buyers beginning to disappear? The homes that ratified contracts between September 1 and September 18, 2026, suggest that buyers are still very much participating in the market. They may simply be choosing more carefully.

During those eighteen days, 338 Charleston County homes went under contract. The median asking price at the time of ratification was approximately $635,000, and the median home had been on the market about 31 days. That is important because it shows that September did not suddenly bring the Charleston County market to a stop. Homes across a wide range of prices and locations were still finding buyers.

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When we look at a month of real estate activity, it is tempting to ask one simple question: did prices go up or did they go down? After reviewing the residential homes that closed throughout August 2026, I do not think the Charleston-area market gives us such a simple answer. Prices moved up and down from one day to another, but much of that movement came from the types and locations of homes that happened to close that day. August did not appear to be a month when the market suddenly changed direction. Instead, it showed a market where buyers continued to purchase many of the same kinds of homes in many of the same places, while becoming increasingly dependent upon price, condition, location and overall value working together.

The first thing that became obvious when looking at August one day at a time was...

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If we want to understand what buyers are looking for right now, one useful place to start is with the homes they actually chose. From Friday, August 14 through Sunday, August 16, 2026, 151 homes went under contract in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. Charleston County accounted for 66 of those contracts, Berkeley County had 55, and Dorchester County had 30. One weekend does not establish a long-term market trend, but it does give sellers a useful snapshot of the homes buyers were willing to act on.

Detached homes clearly led the market. Across the three counties, 125 of the 151 contracts, or about 83%, were detached homes. Charleston County had 56 detached and 10 attached contracts. Berkeley County had 42 detached and 13 attached, while Dorchester County had 27 detached and only three attached. This does not mean attached homes are not selling, but it does show that detached homes represented most of...

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The homes that go under contract give us one of the clearest pictures of what buyers are willing to choose. They do not tell us what every buyer wants, and they do not show the final sales price. However, they do show which homes were attractive enough for a buyer and seller to reach an agreement. Between July 31 and August 3, 2026, 200 homes went under contract across Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. The numbers show that buyers are still active, but their choices are strongly connected to price, bedroom count, property type and location.

Charleston County had the greatest number of contracts, with 95 homes ratified during the four-day period. The median list price was $599,000, which was considerably higher than the median prices in Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. The typical Charleston County...

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