Everyone keeps waiting for Charleston's high end to blink. The number people are quoting says it hasn't, with a caveat attached. Charles Sullivan, Broker/Partner at Carriage Properties, counted 53 downtown homes closing above $2 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from 32 a year earlier. That figure comes from his own MLS pull rather than an association statistic, and "downtown" has no defined boundary in it. Read it as a broker's account of his own market.
The cleaner data sits behind it. In 2025 the $2 million to $5 million band cleared exactly 764 closed sales, 66 more than 2024, alongside 73 sales from $5 million to $10 million and 12 above $10 million. The region finished the year at a $426,947 median, up 2.4%, on 17,776 closings. Downtown's 2025 median was $1,257,500 on 404 sales. The record is 51 East Bay Street, closed October 31, 2025, north of $21 million: $21,028,560 on the recorded deed, $21,575,000 including furnishings through a separate bill of sale. That is the highest residential sale in Charleston, not only on the peninsula. It replaced $18.25 million at 5 East Battery, set in February 2025.
Three figures in circulation do not survive the June data from the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors. Months of supply is 3.5, down 5.4% year over year after peaking at 3.7 in May, so supply is tightening again rather than loosening. Raw inventory is up 4.0%, a good deal less than the number in circulation, which turns out to be a 2025 full-year active-listings figure wearing a 2026 label. And the median sells in 48 days, not the twenty-plus-day-longer figure being repeated. The slowest month of 2026 was February at 59. June's median came in at $450,000, up 4.7%.
On scarcity at the top, luxury brokers describe limited inventory at premium price points, and that is where it stays: opinion, from people who watch it daily. Nobody publishes months of supply by price tier, which has never stopped the figure from being quoted. The counter-signal belongs here too. I'On's median is $2.2 million with days on market at 126, up from 69 a year earlier, which is reported at the neighborhood level rather than published by the association. That is softening. Sullivan's Island ran $4.2 million in 2025 and $4.7 million in May 2026, up 17%. Kiawah is at $3.95 million, up 23.6%, after $851 million of 2025 volume on 332 transactions, third highest on record.
Strong at the very top, uneven a tier below, slower overall than the headline suggests. The move is readiness, not urgency.
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All Field Notes