The tiers, because nobody publishes a clean $3,000,000 count
No association or brokerage in Charleston publishes a $3,000,000-plus sales count, so the honest way to describe the market is by the tiers that are published. In 2025 the Charleston MLS recorded 764 closings between $2,000,000 and $5,000,000 (up 66), 73 between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 (up 12) and 12 above $10,000,000 (up 2). Three historic-district sales cleared $15,000,000 that year, against one at $9,700,000 the year before. By the first weeks of January 2026 there had already been nine closings above $5,000,000, versus three in the same window a year earlier.
Through September 2026, Charleston County's $2,000,000-plus closings were up 30.6 percent year over year, $2,000,000-plus new listings were up 10.9 percent, and the share of $1,000,000-plus closings that were above $2,000,000 rose from 30 to 36 percent. The county's year-to-date dollar volume reached $5,900,000,000, up 13 percent, on 6,116 closed sales.
The records that moved in the last twelve months
51 East Bay Street, the Casper Christian Schutt House, closed on October 31, 2025 at $21,028,560, $21,575,000 with furnishings, the most expensive single-family sale in the Charleston region. It displaced Kiawah's Vanderhorst Mansion ($20,500,000, 2021). 1 44th Avenue on Isle of Palms closed on May 5, 2026 at $15,000,000 including furnishings, an island record set thirteen months after the previous one. 202 Bank Street in Mount Pleasant's Old Village closed at $14,000,000 in August 2025, second only to the town's $14,950,000 record. 123 Nobels Point Street set Daniel Island's record at $12,500,000 in November 2025. On James Island, 111 Riverland Drive on the Stono set a neighborhood record at $7,625,000 in May 2026. And on the peninsula, 25 East Battery was listed at $28,000,000 in late 2025; its outcome will set the next benchmark.
Submarket by submarket
Downtown Charleston. 2025 median $1,940,000 (+17.6%), 195 sales, 52 days. First-quarter 2026 houses closed above $2,000,000: 53, versus 32. Luxury price per square foot about $1,600 to $1,900, up roughly $100 in a year. June 2026 monthly median $2,640,000, 36 days.
Sullivan's Island. 2025 median $4,200,000, 31 sales, 65 days, the region's highest median. Year to date through May 2026, median $5,025,000 (+28.8%). June 2026: 25 homes for sale, 101 days.
Isle of Palms. 2025 median $2,660,000 (+32.5%), 132 sales, 58 days. Year to date through May 2026, 54 closed sales from 38 (+42.1%). June 2026 monthly median $3,230,000.
Kiawah Island. 2025: $851,000,000 across 332 transactions, the third-highest year on record after 2024's $1,070,000,000. Second quarter 2026: 99 closings, $278,300,000, 48 single-family sales including two above $10,000,000 and sixteen between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000. First-half single-family median $3,975,000 (+24%). 54 homes for sale at mid-year.
Daniel Island. 2025 median $2,110,000, 168 sales, 26 days. Mid-2026 single-family median $2,400,000, up more than 40 percent. November 2025 alone: $72,000,000 across 23 homes, seven above $4,000,000.
Lower Mount Pleasant. 2025 median $1,200,000, 617 sales, 37 days, with the Old Village bluff producing the $14,000,000 sale above.
Seabrook Island. 2025 median $1,460,000, 100 sales, 76 days.
The middle is slower, the top is not
Charleston County's average days on market through September 2026 was about 49, up 11 percent, and 2025 days on market rose in every local submarket as active listings climbed to 4,489 at year-end, up 8.9 percent and nearly three times the 2021 trough. Yet the very top moves fast when the house and the price are right: the South of Broad record in 39 days, an off-market Murray Boulevard sale in a week, a $7,250,000 Society Street listing in seven days, and Daniel Island's luxury tier averaging 26 days. The market is not uniformly hot or uniformly slow. It is selective, and it punishes an overpriced house by letting it sit.
What a $3,000,000-plus seller should do with this
Three things. Price against the specific comparable set and the current absorption in your submarket, not the county headline; Redfin's national analysis found that a 10 percent overprice adds more than a month to time on market, and Realtor.com's found that homes closing by about week four sold for 1.8 percent more than homes at the average pace while homes lingering 18 weeks or more sold for 1.3 percent less. On a $4,000,000 house that spread is about $124,000. Launch everything at once, because the records show the right buyer acts in the first two weeks. And market to where the buyer lives, which is not Charleston: the Census flows are led by the New York metro, and sea-island brokers put the out-of-state share near 80 percent.
DHG's standing rule is the 10/10 guideline: ten days without a showing or ten showings without an offer is the cue to talk about price. We published what that looks like on a real listing that had already spent 303 days and four price cuts with another firm before it came to us.
Sources
Every figure in this article traces to a source below. Market data carries a date because it changes.
| Data point | Source |
|---|---|
| 2025 luxury tier counts, early-January $5M+ closings, Kiawah 2025 volume | The Post and Courier, Stats and Facts, Jan 31, 2026 (Charles Sullivan, Carriage Properties) www.postandcourier.com/stats-and-facts-what-do-the-numbers-reveal-about-the-charleston-rea |
| 2025 submarket medians, sales, days on market, inventory and 2021 comparison | The Post and Courier, Jan 16, 2026 www.postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/charleston-sc-homes-price-sale-2026/article_6b |
| Charleston County year to date through September 2026: closings, volume, days on market | William Means Real Estate, Charleston Real Estate Market Update, Oct 9, 2026 charlestonrealestate.com/blog/charleston-real-estate-market-update |
| $2M+ closings up 30.6 percent and share of $1M+ closings | William Means Real Estate, How's the Market?, Sep 24, 2026 charlestonrealestate.com/blog/hows-the-market |
| Q1 2026 downtown $2M+ closings, price per square foot, 2025 $15M+ sales | The Post and Courier special section, spring 2026 www.postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/special-advertising/charleston-housing-market- |
| June 2026 monthly figures | The Cassina Group, Market Report, June 2026 www.thecassinagroup.com/blog/market-report-june-2026/ |
| Year to date through May 2026 figures | The Cassina Group, Market Report, May 2026 www.thecassinagroup.com/blog/market-report-may-2026/ |
| Kiawah Q2 and first-half 2026 | Pam Harrington Exclusives, Kiawah Island Q2 2026 report pamharringtonexclusives.com/kiawah-island-q2-2026-real-estate-market-report/ |
| Kiawah 2024 record volume | The Post and Courier, Feb 8, 2025 www.postandcourier.com/business/kiawah-island-south-carolina-home-sales-buy-million-presid |
| 51 East Bay Street record | The Post and Courier, Nov 4, 2025 www.postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/charleston-sc-record-home-sale-51-east-bay-st/ |
| Isle of Palms record | The Post and Courier, May 8, 2026 www.postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/isle-of-palms-record-home-sale-15-million/arti |
| 202 Bank Street sale and Mount Pleasant record | The Post and Courier, Oct 27, 2025 www.postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/sullivans-island-record-waterfront-home-sales/ |
| Daniel Island record and November 2025 volume | The Daniel Island News, Dec 31, 2025 thedanielislandnews.com/node/31754 |
| Daniel Island mid-2026 median | The Post and Courier, Jun 20, 2026 postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/daniel-island-sc-record-house-price/article_2b2e98 |
| 111 Riverland Drive sale | William Means Real Estate, first-half 2026 top sales recap charlestonrealestate.com/blog/our-top-ten-sales-a-first-half-2026-recap |
| 25 East Battery listing | The Post and Courier e-edition, late 2025 www.postandcourier.com/epaper/page-b2/page_edf4a57a-7857-5d7a-a969-95d0580be74c.html |
| 5 East Battery days to contract | The Post and Courier, Mar 8, 2025 www.postandcourier.com/record-set-for-south-of-broad-with-the-sale-of-5-east-battery-stree |
| 18 Murray and Society Street pace | The Post and Courier, Mar 14, 2026 www.postandcourier.com/marsh-views-porches-and-exposed-brick-a-tour-of-what-the-lowcountry |
| Overpricing and time on market | Redfin, Over Half of Home Listings Have Been Lingering on the Market for More Than 2 Months, Mar 30, 2026 www.redfin.com/news/press-releases/redfin-reports-over-half-of-home-listings-have-been-lin |
| Week-four pricing analysis | Realtor.com analysis, By Week Four, Your Listing Is Either Getting Offers or Price Cuts, Jun 11, 2026, as reported by Inman www.inman.com/2026/06/11/realtor-report-sellers-four-week-window-best-price/ |
| Census migration flows | Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, Feb 13, 2023 (Census metro-to-metro flows, 2016 to 2020) bcdcog.com/metro-area-to-metro-area-migration-flows-2 |
| Out-of-state buyer share | The Post and Courier, 2026 Predictions, Dec 27, 2025 www.postandcourier.com/2026-predictions-what-will-the-real-estate-market-in-charleston-loo |
| 605 Raven Road case study | Damian Hall Group, 605 Raven Road analysis (published with the sellers' permission) sellingwithdhg.com/raven/ |
What decides the outcome
Charleston's luxury market in late 2026 is larger at the top than it has ever been and less forgiving in the middle than it was in 2021. The sellers who win price honestly, launch completely and reach the buyer where they already read. The Seller's Field Guide at sellingwithdhg.com describes how DHG does all three.
