On Friday morning, before Labor Day, Curt Evatt spotted a new listing of a house on Lake Keowee.
He excited a message to his realtor, Kevin Cope, knowing he needed to act fast to get the first showing. Cope called back to say they had a screening, but it wouldn’t be before 4 pm.
Six other people had already made appointments for that morning.
“It’s crazy,” said Evatt. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Evatt scheduled a second showing on Saturday, reflected on the big purchase during the holiday and made an offer on Tuesday. As soon as the news spread, other offers emerged, but Evatt’s won
The lake region – Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee, bounded by the counties of Oconee and Pickens, in particular – had its best year in terms of sales of houses and plots. With the pandemic raising the value of open space and lowering interest rates on loans, out-of-town residents sought homes to stretch their legs and locals sought out nearby vacation options, according to real estate agents.
“Almost every realtor I know around the lake, we’ve all had record years,” said Mike Roach of Top Guns Realty. “Our biggest problem now is low inventory.”
Roach and his business partner and brother Matt started last year with 220 listings of beachfront homes and ended the year with just 17. Limited inventory means sellers are getting a premium price. The average selling price was $ 1 million, said Roach.
Justin Winter of Justin Winter / Sotheby’s International Realty said his company’s sales to lake communities have tripled last year compared to the previous year. “2020 broke our previous record for 2019,” he said.
The boom in property sales on Lake Keowee is an example of a greater trend in increasing sales across the Southeast, as the pandemic expels people from larger cities and colder environments.
Total home sales in the state reached 100,000 for the first time last year, representing an increase of 2.4 percent over the previous year. The start of homes rose an impressive 20% in the interior of the state in 2020 and is expected to rise another 20% in 2021.
Joan Herlong of Joan Herlong and Associates / Sotheby’s International Realty said her company’s sales tripled in 2020 when the pandemic drove people to look for more space and warmer weather. Herlong’s agency is based in downtown Greenville, but recently announced that it was expanding in Clemson to better serve customers in the lake area.
Curt Evatt’s home on the south side of Lake Keowee.
“I don’t care how good your four walls are, you want somewhere else to go without getting on a plane,” said Herlong, who was the number one sales agent in Greenville in volume from 2010 to 2019, with sales of $ 294 million, according to data from the multiple listing service (MLS).
The Cliffs, a collection of upscale residential communities in mountains and lakes near Lake Keowee, Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains, is popular with people outside the state. Lauren Buckland, the brokerage in charge, said they typically have about 50 properties, but are reduced to just six for the lake area.
“In 2020, we saw a lot of people facing downtime and suddenly they were able to choose where they wanted to live,” Buckland said.
Keowee Lake is attractive to people because it has the warm climate characteristic of South Carolina, as well as clear waters, mountains, easy traffic, new infrastructure, hospital options, shops and a peaceful lifestyle, said Evatt, who is working renovating his lake house. Dhe influx of people who move there, he said it doesn’t seem crowded.
“You can go to the lake from Monday to Friday and it’s like a private lake,” he said.
Agents said those moving into the area are divided equally between people in nearby cities like Greenville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbia and Asheville who want a vacation home and people outside the city who want a main residence. The main state where people move from is Illinois, while other popular states include Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California.
Richard George moved from New Jersey to Lake Keowee last year due to reduced property taxes, better weather and a higher cost of living. The stock was so low that George, along with his wife and two daughters, ended up buying a lot. The mother-in-law also bought a place on the lake and struggled with the competitive market. And they are not the only northerners in the city.
“Most of the people in our neighborhood come from elsewhere, especially from Illinois,” he said. “It’s great. Lakes are places for people to escape.”
George said it is good to live on the lake where there is room to spread out and safely go out in a pandemic. This is something he couldn’t do in the densely populated New Jersey or New York, where he worked. However, they planned to change pre-COVID.
“After reflection, it looks like a great move, although we kind of Forrest got into it,” he said.
The explosive market last year was stimulating for real estate agents in the region, but the resulting low inventory could pose a future problem, especially for newcomers in the sector, Winter said.
“The old saying goes, ‘You can’t sell from an empty car,'” he said.
