NBC, USAToday, TODAY, and FOX need to visit COLUMBIA, SC...

Trulia Trends
Gainers
1. Columbia, SC 88.59%
2. West Chester, PA 57.07%
3. Boston, MA 29.05%
4. New Orleans, LA 22.98%
5. Albuquerque, NM 22.29%
Fallers
1. Yuma, AZ -51.64%
2. Denver, CO -47.84%
3. Corpus Christi, TX -41.41%
4. Fairfax, VA -41.24%
5. Valdosta, GA -39.21%
*Based on changes in search behavior on Trulia from June 07 - July 07

The national news media has gone nuts, reporting on how "dire" the real estate market is in U.S. Their camera's show real estate signs in Phoenix and San Fransico, et al. If they would call me, I would ruin their story. To start, I would tell them to search www.trulia.com, and they would see that Columbia, SC was the #1 market nationwide, in terms of the "click jump" for homes searched from June to July, 2007.

The downtown Columbia real estate market is doing just fine. Of course, the "Gold Rush" of two years ago has slowed, and sure there are a ton or real estate signs out there. However, if a seller has a good house at a good price, it will "go". Sure, it takes a tinch longer for a buyer to "weed" through all of the listings on the market, but Columbia is action packed, especially (in my experience) the property that's under $400,000.

So far, I'm having my best year ever (thanks to all of my friends out there). At present, I have 12ish listings (down from 18ish), with most of them are getting plenty of action. At the same time, I have around 9 contracts that are pending. Just this past Friday, I put three offers on homes and received one on a listing. As in any market, there are Realtors that don't have much going on. On the flip side, many Columbia Realtor's are having banner years.

No matter what the national news is, Columbia enjoys three enormous facets working in it's favor. 1)State governement, which is by far Columbia's largest employer. 2) Fort Jackson, the nation's largest training facility. Columbia survived the latest round of BRAC closings (where Columbia actually expanded its military presence). 3)The University of South Carolina. USC provides thousands of jobs and even more residents for the Columbia market. In short, our jobs ain't going anywhere.

Don't let the NATIONAL media get you down about your local market. Your intown Columbia, SC (29204,29205,29206) neighborhoods are holding strong.