Hilton Head Real Estate Articles

County officials look for ways to pay for land preservation program

BY GREG HAMBRICK, The Beaufort Gazette
Published Friday, November 11, 2005

BEAUFORT - County officials said Thursday they'll need up to $114 million over the next five years to continue the county's land preservation program, but they expect taxpayers won't be able to foot the hefty bill.

Mostly paid for through a $40 million bond referendum that voters approved in 2000, the county's Rural and Critical Land Preservation Program has $3.5 million left after purchasing almost 10,000 acres for conservation and to curb encroaching development.

» Read full article in Island Packet

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Residential real estate going strong

Real estate sales at near-record pace both locally and nationally

This was supposed to be the year the housing market cooled, real estate experts said, with higher interest rates and rising property values expected to slow sales of new and existing homes after five years of record growth.

Instead, sales of existing homes were at the third-highest pace on record in the first quarter, industry officials say, and new-home sales rebounded from a shaky March to post healthy gains in April.

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Investors fuel real estate boom

Baby boomers buying vacation properties, second homes

Sales of second homes surged across the country last year, with investment property and vacation homes accounting for more than a fourth of residential transactions, the National Association of Realtors said.

In southern Beaufort County, where experts say the confluence of economic factors create a good property investment market, year-to-date sales of homes and villas are up 13 percent and 43 percent, respectively, over the first two months of last year.

» Read "Baby boomers buying vacation properties, second homes" in Island Packet