Charleston Area Market Update: Week of July 5-11, 2026

Data pulled from the Charleston Trident MLS for the week of July 5 through 11, 2026, covering residential properties in Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties. For week-over-week context, this update compares against the prior week, June 28 through July 4. Numbers reflect market conditions as of July 13, 2026.

One housekeeping note: last week we ran our monthly market update instead of the usual weekly post, so there is no standalone report for June 28-July 4. We are not backfilling it as its own post, but the data is very useful as a comparison point here, so I am using it throughout this update.

The headline numbers

Sold homes across the tri-county area came in at 294 for the week of July 5-11, down sharply from 492 the week before. Average sold price was $662,883, down 8% from the prior week’s $724,018. On the surface that reads like a fast cooldown. It is not, and the next section explains why.

The number that matters more: homes under contract held essentially flat, 367 this week versus 370 the week before. Back-on-market listings rose to 117 from 99, and expired listings dropped to 43 from 80. Active listings rose about 9%, from 5,090 to 5,563.

Why sold counts cratered (and pending didn’t)

The week of June 28-July 4 included the last few days of June, and closings cluster hard at month-end. Lenders, attorneys, and title companies push to get deals across the line before the calendar flips, which is why that week posted 492 sales, an unusually strong number. The following week is a more typical read on where things actually stand.

Pending contracts are the cleaner signal here because they are not subject to the same end-of-month rush. They held nearly flat, 367 versus 370, which tells you buyers kept writing offers at the same pace both weeks. If sold counts had dropped 40% alongside a real drop in pending activity, that would be a genuine concern. That is not what happened.

Supply widened on paper, not in reality

Run the raw math and months of supply for the tri-county area jumps from about 2.4 months the week of June 28-July 4 to about 4.4 months the week of July 5-11. A balanced market sits at 5 to 6 months, so on paper this looks like a fast move toward balance.

Look closer and the jump is mostly an artifact of the sold-count swing, not a real change in supply. Active listings only grew 9% week over week, from 5,090 to 5,563. That is a real, modest increase in what is on the market, consistent with the usual seasonal pattern of more listings hitting in summer. It is nowhere near enough on its own to double the supply math. The months-of-supply figure is doing exactly what it always does when the denominator (weekly sales) swings hard in either direction: it overreacts. Treat this week’s 4.4 months as directionally useful but not a clean read on where the market actually sits.

County by county

Charleston County posted 122 sales for the week, an average sold price of $939,280, and 54 days on market. That is down from 226 sales the week before, again a month-end effect, with the average price essentially flat (down about 1%). New listings jumped 46% week over week, the biggest increase of the three counties.

Berkeley County recorded 97 sales, an average of $534,563, and the fastest pace of the three counties at 41 days, actually 12 days quicker than the week before. Average price rose 6% week over week. New listings were up 35%.

Dorchester County posted 57 sales, an average of $413,476, and 48 days on market. Average price rose 6% week over week as well. New listings climbed 24%.

Pending contracts moved in different directions by county: Charleston County pendings dipped 12% week over week, while Berkeley rose 17% and Dorchester rose 9%. With sold counts this noisy, that spread is more about which contracts happened to get logged in a given week than a real divergence between the counties.

The year-over-year lens

Year over year for the week of July 5-11: total active listings are up 3%, new listings are down 5%, sold count is down 7%, and average sold price is up 2%. The one number worth sitting with is pending contracts, up 20% year over year. That follows a 9% year-over-year gain the week before, two straight weeks of double-digit growth in the forward-looking number.

Worth noting the contrast with the prior week’s year-over-year picture, where average sold price was up 18% and sold volume was up 29%. That week’s price jump was almost certainly mix-driven, a heavier share of higher-end closings landing in that particular week rather than broad appreciation. This week’s more modest 2% year-over-year price move is the more typical, more trustworthy number of the two.

What this means if you are buying

New listings jumped across all three counties this week, which means more to look at than the week before. Pending contracts running 20% ahead of a year ago tells you that the homes worth having are still getting picked up by other buyers, so having financing lined up and being ready to move on a well-priced home still matters. Get fully pre-approved before you start touring seriously.

What this means if you are selling

Don’t read the 40% drop in sold homes as your home suddenly being harder to sell. It is a calendar effect from the prior week’s month-end closing rush, not a shift in buyer interest. Pending contracts held steady and are running well ahead of last year, which means qualified buyers are still out there and still writing offers. Price to current comps and the numbers say your home should still move at a reasonable pace. If you want a clearer read on what your specific home would net in today’s market, that is a conversation worth having rather than a guess.

I run this update every week specifically so a noisy week like this one does not get mistaken for a trend. One week’s sold count bouncing around because of closing timing is exactly the kind of thing that looks alarming in isolation and means very little once you have the pending numbers and the year-over-year context sitting next to it.

Matthew Kleinman, Real Estate Advisor