Port Royal

I received an email out today regarding a very large price reduction on a condo in Port Royal, about 5 minutes from downtown Beaufort.

This 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo, originally, priced at $139,000, was reduced yesterday to $70,000.  This condo home has almost 1200 square feet of living space. This condo has been smartly updated, including new flooring and new stainless steel appliances.

It's the sign of the times for condos. A few years ago, this kind of property would have sold in the $140,000 range.

Beaufort has never experienced the kind of condo mania which went a long way towards killing the Florida real estate market. There, buyers were trying to simultaneously buy and sell a condo, and make $100,000 or so in the process.

The Port Royal

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So, you are looking for a really nice house in a great neighborhood, for under under $500,000, in Beaufort, SC. And you want it on deep water? Really?

The great thing about a blog is that we can be blunt, and say the kind of direct things that need to be said, but that sometimes make for uncomfortable conversations when a Realtor talks with his buyers and sellers. Blogs are a great opportunity to "get real" about real estate in Beaufort, SC. We can say what needs to be said, without worrying about offending anyone.

The issue with this not-so-fictitious property search (stay with me) for a nice house on deep water in a great neighborhood -- for under $500,000 -- in Beaufort, SC is that just about everybody in the world is looking for this as well.

And among…

Beaufort, SC, and the surrounding area has a varied, bustling, and exciting real estate market, from the oceanfront mansions of Harbor Island and Fripp Island, to 200-plus year old homes in downtown Beaufort's "Old Point" neighborhood.

But, for many Beaufort Realtors and real estate observers, the backbone of Beaufort's real estate market are the five "main areas," which are comprised of Beaufort, Mossy Oaks, Port Royal, Burton, and Lady's Island.

These five areas create the geographic heart of Beaufort's real estate market, which sits between the farther flung real estate areas of Fripp Island and Harbor Island to the east, Northern Beaufort County to the west, and South of the Broad River to the south.

Beaufort's five main areas represented about half of…

Port Royal, Beaufort, SC's sister town, has been one of the true real estate dynamos of Northern Beaufort County in recent years.

With plans in place to redevelopment about 50 acres of property along the deepwater of Battery Creek, Port Royal seems like an area ready to launch a real estate renaissance.

In 2010, a Charleston developer signed a deal to purchase the Port or Port Royal, a deal which real estate observers believe could will help reignite excitement and urgency in the local real estate market. The Beaufort Gazette recently named this deal as the top news story of 2010.

In terms of real estate, the Town of Port Royal has been in growth mode in recent years, annexing it's way out of its old downtown corridor along Paris Avenue, and…