KIAWAH ISLAND — The most expensive home sale ever in the Charleston area helped boost the seaside resort's real estate sales to a record for the first six months of the year.
The gated community reported its best first half of the year ever with $466 million in sales through 378 transactions.
That comes out to just over $1.23 million per sale, including the record $20.5 million sale in June of the Vanderhorst Mansion. Subtracting the Vanderhorst sale, the average price comes out to $1.18 million during the first six months of 2021.
Both average sales figures above $1 million are about 3½ times more than the median sales price for homes in the Charleston area of just under $340,000 during the year's first half.
Dollar volume was up 189 percent while transactions jumped 161 percent year over year.
In the second quarter alone, Kiawah Island saw $261 million in sales across 201 transactions. That was 200 percent higher in dollar volume and 145 percent more in number of closings compared to the second quarter of last year.
The island also witnessed a 340 percent leap in the number of homes selling for more than $2.5 million. Also, the number of homesites selling between $1 million and $2 million skyrocketed 1,200 percent.
Low housing stock is a problem across the nation, and the island is no different.
Inventory of all available property types is down to 121, or just 2.5 percent of the total properties on the island. During the past three years, the number of available properties dropped by 76 percent.
Kiawah Island Real Estate, which handles the majority of sales at the coastal enclave, including the Vanderhorst transaction, also reported record-breaking sales volume. The firm handled more than $342 million in closed transactions during the year's first half.
That's up 257 percent from the same period last year and 30 percent higher than the previous record high during the past 16 years.