Where’s the hottest real estate on Hilton Head? Here’s what the 2019 market report says

No single neighborhood on Hilton Head Island swept the real estate market in 2019.

As expected, the 2019 market report, released last month by the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors, showed the largest neighborhoods — Sea Pines, Hilton Head Plantations and Palmetto Dunes — had the highest number of sales.

Hilton Head Plantation and non-gated communities, including Folly Field, saw the quickest sales, while Sea Pines and Palmetto Dunes fell in the middle in the average number of days properties stayed on the market.

Smaller communities such as Spanish Wells — which had only 12 sales in 2019 — sold high-valued properties that resulted in an average sale price of more than $1 million per home.

In real estate, what’s valuable to one buyer is of no concern to another. The 2019 report shows the varying values of buyers on Hilton Head Island.

Some buyers want access to the iconic Harbour Town promenade in Sea Pines, so look for a home there. Others are looking for a view of the sunrise over Port Royal Sound, so focus on Port Royal Plantation. If a quick walk to the beach is on the list, a home at Folly Field, in Palmetto Dunes or Forest Beach could be the best.

Other communities are attractive to buyers because the amenities appeal to their interests.

Marinas at Windmill Harbour and Wexford appeal to some with boats. Swimming pools and an accessible boardwalk could make Hilton Head Plantation attractive to swimmers.

And while the golf courses at Long Cove Club and Shipyard are a selling point, private pilots may be more interested in Indigo Run and Palmetto Hall near the airport.

“Real estate is really neighborhood to neighborhood,” CEO of the association of Realtors Jean Beck said Monday. “How it breaks out into the communities? That’s part of the story we have to tell.”

Coming off a year of three interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve and higher average home prices in the area, Beck said most agents are optimistic about the year ahead in real estate.

Here are the main takeaways from the report:

Most home sales in 2019

The report breaks down which communities had the most number of closed sales in 2019, a metric that is heavily influenced by the community’s size and availability of condos or villas, Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors president Heather Baker said.

“That shows the demand for that area and it’s showing where buyers are wanting to purchase,” Baker said. Larger communities benefit from this metric “because they have more inventory,” she added.

In 2019, Sea Pines had the most number of closed sales with one for every day of the year.

Here are the top five areas by number of closed sales:

1. Sea Pines: 365 sales
2. Off plantation condos/ villas: 334 sales
3. Palmetto Dunes: 298 sales
4. Hilton Head Plantation: 272 sales
5. Forest Beach: 247 sales

While Sea Pines and Hilton Head Plantation, the island’s two largest gated communities, are to be expected on a list of highest number of sales, Palmetto Dunes split them in 2019.

Highest and lowest priced homes

Another metric included in the report is the median home price in each neighborhood. These data include historical information, not just the average home price based on sales from 2019.

Here are the five communities with the highest median home prices (all gated):

1. Spanish Wells: $1,175,000
2. Wexford: $887,500
3. Indigo Run: $669,150
4. Long Cove: $615,000
5. Port Royal Plantation: $610,000

Although those communities had high sale prices, all five had fewer than 60 sales in 2019, according to the data. Spanish Wells, located near the Cross Island Parkway, was the only community with a median home price above $1 million, the data show.

However, most of the communities with the lowest home prices were non-gated or neighborhoods with many condos and villas:

1. Off plantation condos/ villas: $152,000
2. Folly Field: $176,250
3. Forest Beach: $265,000
4. Shipyard: $330,000
5. Off plantation detached homes: $335,000

But gated communities don’t always mean higher property values, according to 2016 research from the American Real Estate Society that examined housing sales from 11 gated communities in Shelby County, Tennessee.

Residential properties in gated communities showed a “noticeable price premium of approximately $30,000,” which professors Evgeny Radetskiy of La Salle University, Ronald Spahr and Mark Sunderman of the University of Memphis said most likely results from the additional privacy and enhanced home design gated communities offer, according to an article on the study published in Newswire.

But the additional amenities such as clubhouses, community swimming pools and tennis courts can reduce sale prices by approximately $19,500, Newswire said.

“Additional maintenance costs associated with these amenities often outweigh their benefits, and it appears that while a gate has value, additional neighborhood amenities do not always provide additional value,” Sunderman said.

Days on the market

How quickly real estate inventory moves is also important to real estate agents.

“As of last year, the average days on the market for this entire area was 170 days,” Baker said. Less time on the market, she said, increases urgency for buyers and typically means a higher sale price.

Here’s where homes moved the quickest in 2019:

1. Off plantation condos/ villas: 106 days
2. Hilton Head Plantation: 113 days
3. Folly Field: 124 days
4. Shipyard: 126 days
5. Spanish Wells: 132 days

Meanwhile, homes were on the market for longer in other parts of the island.

Baker warns that the size of the community can affect this metric. If a smaller community has five sales, but one is on the market for much longer, she said it can skew the data.

Here’s where homes were on the market the longest in 2019:

1. Palmetto Hall: 212 days
2. Long Cove: 211 days
3. Wexford: 189 days
4. Off plantation detached homes: 180 days
5. Windmill Harbour: 178 days

Affordable housing on Hilton Head Island

The most popular price range for homes sold in Beaufort County in 2019 was $225,001 to $375,000, the data show.

In that market, 2,061 homes were sold.

This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 4:00 AM.

Katherine Kokal

The Island Packet

843-560-9158

Katherine Kokal graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and joined The Island Packet newsroom in 2018. Before moving to the Lowcountry, she worked as an interviewer and translator at a nonprofit in Barcelona and at two NPR member stations. At The Island Packet, Katherine covers Hilton Head Island’s government, environment, development, beaches and the all-important Loggerhead Sea Turtle. She has earned South Carolina Press Association Awards for in-depth reporting, government beat reporting, business beat reporting, growth and development reporting, food writing and for her use of social media.