Excellent conditions, both in terms of weather and purchasing leverage, lifted first quarter residential home sales to its highest level since 2007, according to data released by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. Low snowfall totals, combined with low prices, low interest rates and relatively high inventory, opened the door for 2,223 homes to be sold in the first three months of 2012, a 17 percent increase over the 1,903 sold through March 31 in 2011.
Median price on those sales, meanwhile, dropped nearly five percent, from $197,500 in the first quarter of 2011 to $188,000 in the same period 2012. “This is about supply and demand, and it’s about home prices continuing to adjust to a market
that has been favoring buyers for several years now,” said NHAR President John Rice, a 40‐year veteran of the real estate industry and an agent with Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty in Rye.
New Hampshire residential sales for March‐only were also ahead of last year’s pace by 17 percent, from 769 in 2011 to 896 in 2012. Median price in March 2011 compared to March 2012 declined 3 percent, from $195,000 to $188,750.
In terms of local markets, each of the state’s 10 counties saw unit sales increases in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, including a 65 percent gain in Sullivan County, 42 percent in Coos County, 31 percent in Cheshire County, and 18 percent in the state’s largest, Hillsborough County.
Only Merrimack and Coos counties showed first quarter median price increases.
March 2012 data residential
March 2012 data condo-1
Rice said he believes the surge in sales is likely to mean the beginning of the end of dropping prices. “That’s just fundamental, free market principles,” he said. “More sales equals less inventory, which eventually equals higher prices. “In future years we’ll look back and be able to pinpoint when prices stabilized. We can’t know that point while we’re going through it, but if this pace keeps up, I can’t imagine we’re too far from it right now.”
Source: Press Release, New Hampshire Association of REALTORS®, Dave Cummings, Director of Communications
Donna Forest, Listing Broker
