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Daily Archives: July 15, 2020

COVID-19

South Carolina DHEC – No Confirmed Deaths from Covid-19 for July 15, 2020

posted on : July 15, 2020 posted by : John Murphy 0 Comment

At some point maybe people will start looking at the data that is staring us all right in the face. South Carolina has seen an increase in Covid-19 positive cases by 400-700% over the past 6 weeks. We had been tracking about 250-300 cases per day to now 1500-2200 per day. And yet today, we heard from SC DHEC that they had NO CONFIRMED DEATHS due to Covid-19. WOW!

We’ve seen no uptick in deaths in the past 6 weeks. We have seen an increase of hospital usage in the past 6 weeks but nothing at this point to worry about.

Today there have been discussions about opening or not opening schools in person. We’ve also seen the SCHSL decide to delay the start of the fall sports season for now with the potential to cancel it altogether.

My guess is if we just stopped wearing masks and moved on to other topics, people would soon enough forget about the virus.

Greenville County Schools

Governor McMaster Calls for Schools to Open 5 Days Per Week Despite Covid – Greenville County Schools Pushes Back

posted on : July 15, 2020 0 Comment

Earlier today, South Carolina Henry McMaster held his own at his press conference which was broadcast like everything is today via Facebook Live. He called on school districts across the state of South Carolina to provide an option that every parent who wants their kid to be back in school in the classroom 5 days per week will have that option. He also said they should have a virtual option as well. I did not watch the entire press conference but he made it sound like he’s recommending 2 options 1) 5 days per week of in classroom instruction or 2) virtual. Lastly, he is suggesting that the school districts push the start of the school out until September 8th due to the current level of Covid positive tests we’re seeing in South Carolina.

McMaster commented several times that virtual learning is not as good as in classroom instruction. I think everyone agrees with that. Now I have heard anecdotally from some local parents that they have been impressed with the e-learning option / platform that Greenville County Schools produced.

Just an hour or so ago, Greenville County Schools came out with a statement pushing back on the Governor’s suggestion that they be back in school 5 days per week. For all the details be sure to read the Greenville News story about Greenville County Schools’ response to the Governor.

It’s been kind of a tough day for Greenville County Schools. First the South Carolina State High School League came out and voted 13-1 to allow students to be able to participate in person summer workouts with their schools (Greenville was the 1 vote). About an hour after that Facebook Live session ended the Governor had his conference and made this push to open the schools.

The next month or two are setting up to be pretty crazy as the battle continues on how to open up the schools and if there will be any high school athletics this fall.

Home Sales Data

Greenville, SC Sees Record High Median Homes Sales Price June 2020 to $235,000

posted on : July 15, 2020 0 Comment

The Greenville area was not immune to Covid this spring as it took hold in March. Home sales declined significantly in April and May but have come back strong in June 2020. The Greenville area just hit a new median home price high of $235,000 for the month of June.

The market continues to remain healthy at this point. Homes under $300,000 still typically sell very fast. The overall Days on Market for June was just 54 days…that’s the time it takes to have the property go under contract and go pending where the inspection contingency has been removed. Homes priced over $300,000 were seeing it take 73 days in June.

Closed sales jumped 13.7% compared to last June to a new high of 1591. Some of that in all likelihood was recaptured from sales that did not happen in April or May.

There’s plenty of new construction inventory coming on line in the Greenville and surrounding area. We’d still like to see more existing housing come up for sale but that is still an uphill battle with homeowners. I am seeing signs that maybe we are at the inventory trough and we’ll start to see better inventory levels in the coming months and years. The problem is, I’ve expected to see this now for two years in-a-row and have been proven wrong each year 🙁

Months supply of housing for sale is another metric to gauge a marketplace. We are just starting to see an uptick here.

Sports

South Carolina High School League Votes 13 to 1 to Allow In Person Summer Workouts

posted on : July 15, 2020 0 Comment

This morning the South Carolina High School League held a Facebook Live meeting. I came in on the tail end of it where there was motion to vote regarding in person workouts. I don’t have exactly how it was worded…kind of seemed like it might have been a double negative. In any event, the vote was 13-1 in favor of continuing to allow in person workouts and to reject the decision by Greenville County Schools to eliminate in person workouts.

Greenville County Schools order is set to expire on July 20th. We’ll have to see if they decide to stick to their guns despite everyone else in the state wanted to continue workouts.

My understanding with the vote is that the South Carolina High School League is not going to make a decision to force schools to stop workouts but rather it will be left up to the local school districts in the state.

I believe they had also discussed the possibility of moving fall sports to spring…I guess they are hopeful that somehow things are going to be better with the virus next spring. I’m not sure where they are getting that idea from given that the hysteria over the virus has accelerated here since mid-March.

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