Charleston Real Team

Charleston Regional Business Journal Staff Report
Published Feb. 24, 2010

While statewide home sales in January increased 15% over sales in January 2009, Charleston area home sales increased 11.8%, according to numbers released by the S.C. Realtors Association Tuesday.

Sales in the Greater Columbia region dropped 3.7% to 362 homes sold in 2010 from 376 in 2009.

However, the total number of statewide homes sold in January was 2,487 up from last January’s total of 2,159. Several markets reported large increases in year-over-year home sales, including a 103.6% increase in the Hilton Head area, a 50.4% increase in the Grand Strand and a 42.6% increase in the Aiken area.

However, not all the news is good. Statewide home sales dropped 29% from December to January, the association reported.

Statewide, the median home price dropped slightly from $140,500 in December to $140,000 in January and the number of days a home sat on the market increased from 153 to 155.

MLS Stats January 2010

Courtesy SCBIZnews.com

By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com

“What it means to our state we can’t even calculate today,” said Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Today, the House and Senate gave final approval to an incentive package that requires for qualification that a company invest at least $750 million and create 3,800 full-time positions over seven years.

The final vote came on the heels of reports out of Seattle that talks had broken down between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Boeing wanted a no-strike agreement. The union walked off the job for two months last year, costing the company millions and delaying production.

In July, a day after Boeing purchased the local aft fuselage facility, an employee here filed for a decertification election that eventually booted the Machinists union out of Charleston.

Washington officials bemoaned the news.

Approximately 55 airlines have ordered about 840 of the 787 airplanes since the program was launched in 2003.

“Establishing a second 787 assembly line in Charleston will expand our production capability to meet the market demand for the airplane,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “This decision allows us to continue building on the synergies we have established in South Carolina with Boeing Charleston and Global Aeronautica,” he said.

Boeing Charleston performs fabrication, assembly and systems installation for the 787 aft fuselage sections. Across the street, Global Aeronautica, which is 50% owned by Boeing, is responsible for the joining and integration of 787 fuselage sections from other structural partners.