Homes sales fell nearly 30% in April

While hundreds of homes in the Charleston region found buyers last month, thousands more are on the market, awaiting buyers.

A total of 700 area homes sold in April, a nearly 30 percent decline compared to the same month last year, according to data from the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors' Multiple Listing Service. So far in 2008, sales have been off more than 25 percent every month compared to 2007.

The median price declined 1.7 percent in April to $205,000.

The typically busy spring selling season hasn't brought with it the usual spike in sales. In fact, the number of homes that changed hands last month fell below the number of deals that closed in March.

Jim Grady, a Mount Pleasant real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty, said he has seen fewer people move to better locations or upgrade to nicer homes out of fear they won't be able to sell their current residence.

"In the past, we would have seen people go ahead and move," he said. "In this situation, they have decided to forgo the move."

Read more in Tuesday's edition of The Post and Courier.