The price of a single-family home moderated a bit in July to $530,000. That is $8,000 less than the record high of July ($538,000) but still higher than previous records set in May ($525,000), April ($515,000) and March ($495,950).
In some parts of the country, a greater moderation of pricing and the availability of more property for sale is signaling a bit of a cooling in what has been a red-hot residential real estate market.
But, while real estate experts are seeing some moderation in New Hampshire, the state is still a long way from having a balanced market.
“The news regarding the New Hampshire housing market is much of the same that we’ve seen all year,” said Joanie McIntire, president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors (NHAR). “July’s median sales price is still at $530,000. Closed sales are up slightly from 2023, but down from 2022. I am personally seeing multiple offers on properties and sale prices over list price. This indicates that demand is still high.”
The NHAR sales report for July shows the median sales price was up 10.4% to $530,000 for single-family homes and 5.2% to $405,000 for townhouse-condo properties compared to July 2023.
Property stayed on the market a little longer in July. The NHAR reports says the days on market indicator increased 5.3% for single-family homes to 20 days and 21.7% for townhouse-condo properties to 28 days, a rate that is still much faster than the 30-60 days in a normalized market.
The inventory measure (months of supply) increased 29.4% to 2.2 for single-family homes and 33.3% to 2.0 townhouse-condo properties. A healthy months of supply is between 4 and 6 months.
For several years now, it has been a seller’s market, with escalating prices as demand exceeds supply.
But in some markets in the country — primarily in the south in Texas, Florida and Louisiana — sellers are losing their advantage as more properties are for sale and staying on the market for longer periods of time.
But McIntire cautions there are still “many areas in the country that, similar to New Hampshire, supply persists at record lows and demand continues to be high.”
And home mortgage rates continue to be a long way from the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage of 2.65% in January 2021, the lowest rate on record, fueled by low Federal Reserve rates during the COVID pandemic to help prevent the economy from collapsing. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s July forecast predicts that mortgage rates will fall from 6.8% in the third quarter of 2024 to 6.6% by the fourth quarter. The association expects rates will fall to 6% at the end of 2025 and will average 5.8% in 2026.
The “good news” cited by McIntire comes in the form of her optimism that housing advocates are making in-roads among policymakers to create more housing stock, particularly affordable housing.
“Through my conversations around the state it feels like people are coming around to the idea that New Hampshire needs to increase its housing stock,” said McIntire, associate broker at Coldwell Banker J. Hempe Associates in Concord.
“Housing advocates are getting the word out that we need more housing in order to have a healthy economy and build strong communities,” she added. “We just need policymakers to listen to and hear the voices of residents in New Hampshire’s cities and towns desperate for more housing supply.”
In New Hampshire’s Seacoast region, 31 of the 80 properties that sold went for more than $1 million. That helped boost the region’s median price for a house to $795,000 in July, which is actually 12.7% lower than a year ago, according to data from the Seacoast Board of Realtors.
That board takes its data from 13 sample communities: Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, North Hampton, Newmarket, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook and Stratham.
The median price of a condo in the region was $596,950, up 29.7% from a year ago.
“Our real estate market continues to do very well,” said Lynn Lagasse, president of the Seacoast Board of Realtors. “While median prices cooled somewhat, volume numbers were very strong across the various price categories.”
As for New Hampshire’s 10 counties, here are the July single-family median prices, highest to lowest:
Rockingham, $650,000
Hillsborough, $542,000
Carroll, $543,875
Belknap, $537,00
Grafton, $480,000
Sullivan, $477,500
Strafford, $473,000
Merrimack, $470,000
Cheshire, $380,000
Coos, $240,000
Here, highest to lowest, are the counties’ median prices for condos:
Coos, $715,000
Rockingham, $538,000
Sullivan, $425,000
Carroll, $464,500
Belknap, $369,900
Hillsborough, $369,500
Stafford, $355,000
Grafton, $326,225
Merrimack, $320,000
Cheshire, $235,000
Nationally, New Hampshire ranks seventh for highest home expenses, according to a study by Cinch Home Services, a national home warranty company.
The study looked at average property taxes, mortgage payments and maintenance fees for a median-priced home in each state. They found that New Hampshire homeowners pay 37% more for housing expenses than the national average, paying $43,122 a year in home-related expenses.
Hawaii topped the list at $65,185 in total expenses. Neighbor Massachusetts was third at $51,316.
West Virginia had the lowest of expenses, according to the survey, coming in at $14,506.
