Economic Indicators

Pending Home Sales Index
A flat pattern in home sales activity should continue for the next couple months before improving over the summer, according to the latest forecast. The Pending Home Sales Index edged down 1.0 percent to 83.0 from a downwardly revised level of 83.8 in February.
Existing-Home Sales
Existing-home sales were down 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units in March from a level of 5.03 million in February, and remain 19.3 percent below the 6.11 million-unit pace in March 2007.
New-Home Sales
Posted a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units in March – a decline of 8.5% from February’s
revised rate of 575,000 units and more than 36% below the rate in March of 2007.
Housing Starts
Posted 947,000 units in March – 11.6% below February’s revised level of 1,075,000 units and 36.5% off the
pace in March of 2007. Current starts are well below the 2 million housing starts during the boom years.
Housing Affordability
NAR’s Housing Affordability Index stood at 130.2 at the end of March – down from the 135.4 level posted for February. The decrease was due primarily to a slight increase (from February to March) in the median sale price of an existing home, as well as an increase in mortgage rates and qualifying income. Still, March’s reading is well above the 113.2 of a year ago.
Mortgage Rates
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate inched lower in April, averaging 5.92% for the month. Rates still remain
historically low, and recent decisions by the Federal Reserve will likely keep mortgage rates attractive.
Employment
The economy lost 20,000 jobs in April – continuing a job loss trend since the beginning of the year. The good
news is that April’s negative employment number was much milder that those in recent months.
Economic Growth
The economy barely eked out a positive GDP growth number in the first quarter of 2008, posting an anemic 0.6% rate.

Carolina One Real Estate

Big Day!!! Our real estate company will no longer go by the name Prudential Carolina. We will now be called Carolina One Real Estate and Mortgage. It's the same company with the same agents and offices and market share leadership. The biggest change is simply the name. We decided not to renew the franchise agreement with Prudential. Instead, we are now an independent locally owned and operated company. We were locally owned and operated by the same owners as we are now. We're just not affilliated with the Prudential name anymore. We have joined a new affilliation with a company known as The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. It will actually give us more exposure than Prudential did. Of the 90 biggest markets in the US, the leader in 41 of those markets is affiliated with The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. They have a network of over 700 independent companies in 35 countries that does more real estate business than any franchise worldwide.

The landscape of Charleston will change. Each and every one of those blue and white Prudential signs will be replaced with blue and gold Carolina One signs. We still have all the same listings we had. Prudential will probably no longer exist in the Charleston real estate market.