Spring is Here - April Update

     April is here and the azaleas are in bloom and Charleston is beautiful!  Summerville just had a boom weekend with its Flowertown Festiva0l where they expected 200,000 people.  How cool for our “small” town to get National attention and visitors.  What a great month to take a stroll through Middleton or Magnolia Gardens.  It’s truly a must see.  We just had 35k people in town for the Cooper River Bridge Run.  It was a little rainy, but that didn’t really seem to bother anyone.  The big events this month are the WTA tennis tournament at Daniel Island, Currently sponsored by Volvo Cars and that goes from April 2-10 as well as all the house and garden tours.  The 69th Annual Festival of Houses and Gardens goes on all month until the 25th.  And the farmer’s market in Marion Square and Summerville gets started again on April 9.  You can also go see acts such as Gregg Allman, Widespread Panic, David Sedaris, and Amy Schumer.  Of course, you need to start planning for Spoleto in May.

Here’s your April calendar of events for the Tri-County:

2: Cooper River Bridge Run

2-10: Volvo Car Open WTA tennis tournament (formerly Family Circle Cup), Daniel Island

8: 16th Annual Kiawah Island House and Art Tour

8-9: 81st Garden Club House and Garden Tour

10: Aaron Neville, Chas Music Hall

13-17: Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus Legends, N Charleston Coliseum

14: Greg Allman, Chas Music Hall

14-21: Charleston Race Week, International Sailboat Regatta

15: North Mississippi All-stars, Chas Music Hall

15: Charleston Outdoor Festival, James Island County Park

15-17: Kiawah Motoring Retreat

15: Out to Lunch with the Conservancy, Hampton Park

16-17: Zac Brown’s Band Southern Ground Music and Food Festival, Daniel Island

16: Bird Songs, Center for Birds of Prey

19: David Sedaris, Gaillard

21: Welcome to Night Vale, Chas Music Hall

22: Widespread Panic, N Chas Coliseum

22,23: CSO Masterworks Series, Tchaikovsky and Brahms

24: Music of Janis Joplin, Gaillard

24: 29th Blessing of Fleet and Seafood Festival, Memorial Waterfront Park Mt Pleasant

28: Amy Schumer, N Chas Performing Arts Center

29: Dave Rawlings Machine and Punch Brothers, Chas Music Hall

30: Paula Poundstone, Chas Music Hall

Our real estate market is really booming.  Buying activity is extremely high and inventory is low.  Prices are going up, but at a very reasonable pace.  January and February buying activity was up 10% over 2015 and prices were up 6.6% over Jan and Feb 2015.  Median sales price is maintaining at about $235k.  It will be interesting to see if buying activity can exceed the 2005-2006 records.  2015 was the 3rd busiest year ever.  2016 will likely exceed 2015, but I don’t know if we’ll break the records set in 2005-6.  While we are often the #1 or #2 best city by Conde Nast Travel Magazine, we also get rated high by other publications.  US News and World Report just ranked us 19th Best Place to Live in the country.  Charleston’s suburbs are expanding westward with more growth in Summerville.  Summerville has now annexed property on the Goose Creek side of I26 and the Nexton home development there will be huge.  They are currently doing some major road construction in that area to handle all the new population coming to that area.  Google already has a plant up there and that’s also where the new Volvo plant is going to be.  What a great place to live!!

Summerville, SC Flowertown Festival