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Hello REALTORS®, Election Day in 2025 is November 4, and filing has closed for 39 city and town council seats and 5 mayors, so we know who is running in 14 of our cities and towns. Plus, 3 vacant seats on 3 councils will be on the ballot for special elections. In this Watchdog Report,… Read more »

Housing Supply Overview U.S. new-home sales increased 0.6% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 627,000 units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite the monthly gain, sales were down 6.6% from the same period last year. The median sales price for new homes fell 4.9% from the previous month to $401,800 and was… Read more »

Hello REALTORS®, A long time ago, when I didn’t have gray hair, I worked for your state association on the advocacy team.  I moved over to SCR from the Home Builders Association.  An issue the HBA was working on at the time was vested rights, and your REALTORS® Association recognized its importance to your industry… Read more »

Hello REALTORS®, There is some positive news for Realtors coming from Washington this week.  Early on Tuesday morning, the US Senate passed its version of the President’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and NAR reports that the bill includes the top five Realtor legislative priorities that support homeownership and strengthen the real estate economy. What does the… Read more »

Hello REALTORS®, Like all the local governments in the Upstate, Oconee County’s local governments have been wrestling with balancing their budgets.  That has kept elected officials busy and created some political drama (as if there isn’t enough of that already).  This week, I am providing a review of what has been happening in Oconee County… Read more »

Hello REALTORS®, Most cities in South Carolina require a business license to conduct business in their city.  Nearly all of them impose a business license tax as well.  The tax is not insignificant.  In fact, most cities receive a substantial portion of their revenue, sometimes as high as 30%, from business license taxes. Some counties… Read more »

The core principles we use for evaluating public policy are: During the last three years, Pickens County Council has adopted several ordinances of interest to Realtors.  In 2022, they started with a new development code for Highway 11 that restricts land uses to primarily residential and sets a very low-density standard.  Their objective was to… Read more »

Is South Carolina the most affordable state in the US? I’ll call this Watchdog Report the “News Brief” version.  There are several topics to cover, but they are all brief. Walhalla Special Election Results The turnout was about average for most elections, but better than average for a special election—14% of registered voters turned out,… Read more »