April 2009 – The New Hampshire Real Estate Market
by Michelle on May 14, 2009
in NH Real Estate Market
The Northern New England Real Estate Network has put out their April statistics! That means it is time for the monthly review of the New Hampshire Real Estate Market.
Especially in today`s real estate climate, knowing what the market is doing is imperative to making smart decisions when it comes to buying or selling your New Hampshire property. Looking for a particular statistic you do not see here? Contact us and we will do our best to research it for you!
Quick Stats (Carroll County):
As usual these days, there are plenty of listings to go around. However, while the number of active listings is up about 15%, there are almost double the amount of pending or contingent listings than last month (98 vs. 50), and closings were up 28%. Looks like a spring rush to me!
Average Days on Market:
Looking at the Average Days on Market is a quick way of determining how ‘soft’ the market is. Days on Market records how many days properties were actively on the market before they were sold. Generally speaking, the higher the DOM, the more likely it is a buyer’s market.
Do keep in mind that this number can be skewed in a number of ways. If a seller decides to take his property off the market for the winter, or decides to switch REALTORs, the DOM for that property will return to zero. It is common for properties that do not have accurate asking prices to come on and off the market numerous times. If yo have any questions about the accuracy of a property’s DOM, be sure to ask your REALTOR to research.
You can see that April’s DOM dropped quite a bit and is significantly lower than last year. At 154 days it is still longer than we like to see, but it is an improvement over last year’s 201! I would like to think that this is because some sellers putting their property on the market in the past few months have been realistic with their pricing. If it is priced right, it will sell!
Average Sales Price:
As you can see, the Average Sales Price has been lower than last year’s for the past few months. Do keep in mind, though, that this not necessarily mean that the same house is going for less this year than it did last year. It could also point to the fact that more less expensive homes are selling, and fewer more expensive homes are selling.
Absorption Rate:
In my mind, the Absorption Rate is the king of all real estate statistics. Simply put, if you have 50 homes on the market and 10 buyers per month, you have five months worth of inventory. From a seller’s point of view, the less inventory you have, the better!
A five month inventory would be nice… but not reality these days. The absorbtion rate has been steadily increasing since the start of the year. Grafton and Coos counties have the highest rates, with 33.2 and 32 months of inventory, repsectively. Hillsborough has the lowest rate as usual with 18.9 months.
Overall, there has not been significant change – for the worse or for the better – over the past few months. It is still a great time to buy, but also a great time to sell as long as you price correctly!
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