Luxury home sales rise

CHARLESTON - It's the creamy gray mansion along the historic stretch of Battery houses that are the stuff of postcards. The one with the bold navy shutters.

The Nathaniel Ingraham House went on the market this spring for $9.95 million, put up for sale by contemporary artist John Dunnan and wife Meredith.

While that sounds pricey, the Dunnans' sense of timing might be right, as buyers appear to be returning to the high end of the market in the Charleston area.

Whether bordered by historic bluestone sidewalks or situated within range of a salty breeze, the region's top-dollar homes are finding buyers at a faster pace so far this year.

Sales numbers have tripled in some regions during the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, outpacing the overall residential market's growth.

Local real estate experts say luxury-level buyers can't resist the deals on reduced-price property, while others are returning to the market as their personal finances stabilize.

Second-home buyers

Downtown Charleston saw a striking uptick in sales during the first six months for homes listed between $800,000 and $2 million. That's what Carriage Properties agent Charles Sullivan calls the "bread and butter" price for the typical second-home luxury buyer.

A total of 42 single-family residences below the Crosstown Expressway sold within that range from Jan. 1 to June 30, according to figures from the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors. During the first six months of last year, only 13 homes changed hands.

Sullivan attributed part of the increase to recession-wary second-home buyers who are finally starting to come back into the picture after a long absence. He said noted that in 2008 and 2009, that class of buyers "did not exist."

"They looked, but they didn't buy," said Sullivan, adding that second-home sales make up more than half of his firm's business.

Buyers are starting to chip away at the oversized supply of homes available for sale in downtown Charleston, which has helped the market recover faster, he said.

Signs of recovery

Even though the depth of the economic crisis stretched to the wealthiest realm of buyers, they were the last to slow their spending. And they're also the first to return.

On Kiawah Island, the most expensive subset of homes -- those that fetch more than $2.5 million -- saw a surge of buyers during the year's first half. Kiawah Island Real Estate, which brokers about 85 percent of the island's housing transactions, recorded 14 home sales priced above that threshold. Only five sold during the same period last year, the firm said.

Chris Drury, broker-in-charge of the Kiawah agency, said as the economy recovers, buyers with the most money in the bank tend to be the quickest to regain their sense of confidence.

"Everybody's probably lost some net worth over these past couple of years, but they still have a lot of money relative to the rest of us," Drury said.

He pointed to a buyer from Charlotte who recently purchased a $7 million riverfront home that had sold for nearly $1 million more during better economic times. It was "the kind of buy" that the client "couldn't pass up," he said.

Overall sales on Kiawah Island during the first six months did not show such a robust in crease -- 76 units during 2010 compared to 60 units in 2009.

Other pricey island locales also are showing signs of recovery. Sales on Sullivan's Island, Isle of Palms and Folly Beach grew to 134 during the first six months of 2010, up from 77 sales during the same period last year.

Experts said those markets are still weighed down by distressed property transactions, such as short sales and foreclosures, and the areas still have too much inventory for sale.

Some of those properties are owned by builders who added units during the boom years but have been unable to find buyers now, said Isle of Palms-based real estate agent Jimmy Carroll of Carroll Realty Inc.

"When the time comes, people are going to make some money out here, but they just aren't confident yet," he said.

The reasons they buy

Back at the Nathaniel Ingraham House on the Battery, Helen Lyles Geer of William Means Real Estate is seeking a buyer who's not only confident in the market but also willing to take ownership of a unique historic property.

She noted that the Dunnans' home is among the dwindling number of true single-family residences on the High Battery, where some neighboring properties have been chopped up into condominiums or used as event venues.

The Nathaniel Ingraham House itself was sectioned off at one time so that interior designers could showcase their talents there. That left it without any natural flow.

But the Dunnans undertook a meticulous multimillion-dollar renovation during their decade of ownership, one that had a contractor on his back for five weeks picking away at ceiling paint in the formal dining room.

Cypress wood paneling now encircles the ground-level billiards room.

The Dunnans plan to move to Yeamans Hall in Hanahan while they look for another Charleston property to restore. Meredith Dunnan, an interior designer, keeps scrapbooks of past renovations, from design sketches on paper napkins to notes about the type of materials were used.

"We don't do it to make a living," she said. "We do it out of desire."

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postandcourier.com.