Home prices across Charleston County crossed a notable barrier this summer. What's debatable is whether the milestone is something to applaud, dismiss or fear.

For the first time, the average home value, including newly built and resold houses, condos and townhouses, topped $300,000 at the end of the second quarter, according to the regional Market Opportunity Research Enterprises report. Specifically, the average price for properties from Edisto Island to McClellanville was $312,392, Charleston, SC homes, and Mt Pleasant, SC homes included..

Those whoops you hear are from home sellers and builders cashing in on the inflated sales dollars and from owners seeing their house values appreciate.

The groans are from people scouring for affordable homes or economists worried that the industry is overheating.

Then again, average prices can be skewed by a handful of multi-million-dollar sales, such as at Kiawah Island or Charleston's Historic District. By contrast, the median -- or midpoint -- total can offer a market glimpse that's less affected by extremes. Yet even here, the $220,000 median price as computed by Rocky Mount, N.C.-based M.O.R.E., while more modest than the average value, was a big leap from $178,500 in the same period of 2003.

A broader view of the market reveals a less frenetic outlook. That's because the Charleston SC area also includes Dorchester and Berkeley counties, which showed upward, but less dramatic, shifts.

The average home price in Dorchester County was $166,232; the median cost was $150,240. Berkeley County's prices were similar. The average total was $168,917 while the median was $136,660.

Factoring in all three counties settled the average home price at $256,803, but that's still up 16 percent from $221,439 a year earlier.

The median total in the Charleston SC area was $176,390, a 10 percent increase from $159,900 a year before.

It wasn't just rising prices driving Greater Charleston's residential market. Sales and new construction also popped. In the April through June time frame, homeowners and builders sold 5,202 homes, a 25 percent surge from 4,171 sales a year earlier. Building permits jumped 41 percent to 1,849, from 1,312 a year ago. And lot sales rocketed 64 percent to 1,469 in the second quarter, from 898 the previous year.

By geographical locale, Berkeley County had the strongest market in terms of new construction and sales of existing homes, with the total soaring 39 percent in the past year to 1,063, and in building permits issued, up 82 percent. Charleston County had the healthiest gains in average price, hurdling 22 percent from $256,555 last year; median price, climbing 24 percent; and lot sales rising 106 percent.

BY JIM PARKER
Of The Post and Courier Staff