By SCBIZ Staff

The Greenville and Columbia areas are faring better in the current housing market slump than the coastal areas of Beaufort and Charleston.

August statistics released recently by the South Carolina Realtors multiple listing service show that August home sales dropped 31.18% in Beaufort and 15.21% in the Charleston tri-county area compared with August 2006.

During the same period, homes sales in the Columbia area rose by 2.98%. Greenville experienced a 3.81% drop in sales in August 2007 compared with August 2006.

For the year to date, home sales dropped 22.28% in Beaufort and 16.34% in Charleston compared with the same period in 2006.

Year-to-date home sales in Columbia have risen 2.02% from the same period in 2006 and year-to-date homes sales in Greenville are up 1.45% from the same period last year.

The median price of a home in the Charleston tri-county fell slightly in August to $215,000, compared with $216,000 in August 2006. The median home price in Beaufort fell 22.41% in August to $225,000 from $290,000 in August 2006.

The median price of homes in both Columbia and Greenville rose in August from August 2006. Columbia’s median home price rose 7.91% to $150,000 (up from $139,000). Greenville’s median home price rose from $153,000 in August 2006 to $157,000, a 2.61% jump.

The average number of days on the market for homes in all four South Carolina regions increased in August from the same month last year, but the increase in Columbia and Greenville was less significant than in Charleston and Beaufort. The average number of days on the market for the four regions last month compared with August 2006 were as follows:|

• Beaufort
  August 2006: 148 days
  August 2007: 205 days

• Charleston
  August 2006: 69 days
  August 2007: 92 days

• Columbia
  August 2006: 70 days
  August 2007: 78 days

• Greenville
  August 2006: 79 days
  August 2007: 80 days

Statewide, the average number of days homes spent on the market in August was 130.2, a 5.94% increase from the number of days homes sat on the market in August 2006, which was 122.9 days.