CONCORD, NH – With mortgage interest rates going down, sales of single-family homes are loosening up slightly across New Hampshire and the nation. Low inventory, though, is still keeping prices high and affordability out of the reach for many New Hampshire homebuyers, according to the monthly market report from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.
Buyers looking at the traditionally more affordable option of a condominium or townhouse were also in for some sticker shock in some regions last month. The overall state median sales price for condo/townhouse properties was $425,000, closing in on the $445,000 January MSP of single-family homes, driven up by high-priced options in two counties.
For both types of properties, closed sales, volume of closed sales, new listings, pending sales, and months supply of inventory – all signs the market is loosening for buyers – were up in January when compared to January 2023.
The affordability index, at 68 for a single-family home, was the highest it has been since April, but still at all-time low levels for New Hampshire homebuyers. The index of 68 means that the median New Hampshire income is 68% of what is needed to pay the monthly costs of a median-priced home, including mortgage payment with interest, property taxes and insurance. Median means that half is more and half is less.
Affordability index for a condo/townhouse was 71 in January.
The $445,000 median sales price for a single-family home in January was up 8.5% from January 2023’s $410,000. Buyers in January paid 99.4% of the list price, up from January 2023’s 98.4%, but slightly down from December’s 99.8%, when the MSP was $460,750.
Condo/townhouse $425,000 MSP was up 25% from $339,950 a year ago. The MSP was $394,500 in December. The good news for condo buyers is that the higher MSP was driven by some high-priced properties, with the small amount of sales pushing the overall median. MSP was up 90.9% in Carroll County, from $330,000 a year ago to $630,000 in January on the basis of 17 sales. Condo MSP in Rockingham County was $582,300, up from $410,000 a year ago, and higher than the seacoast county’s MSP for a single-family home in January, which was $560,000.
Condo buyers could still find bargains in Cheshire County, with a $200,000 MSP, down 21.9% from last January’s $255,700. And in Hillsborough County, which includes Manchester and Nashua, the condo MSP was a relatively affordable $328,450, compared to the single-family home MSP of $470,000.
Nationally, the median existing-home SFH price rose 4.4% from the previous January, to $382,600, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“Nationally, listing activity has started to pick up, and with mortgage rates stabilizing and housing completions on the rise, inventory is expected to improve in the coming months,” the NHAR report said.
Some of the sales numbers on the rise from January 2023 to last month for single-family homes are:
- Closed sales, up 5.6%, from 628 t0 663
- Volume, up 7%, from $329.9 million to $353 million
- Pending sales, up 4.2%, from 693 to 722
- Months supply, up 18.2%, from 1.1 to 1.3
Numbers on the rise for the condo/townhouse market, which has much small inventory, so small changes can mean a big percentage change, included:
- Closed sales, up 15.7%, from 198 to 229
- Volume, up 41.6%, from $81 million to $114.7 million
- Pending sales, up 17.9%, from 273 to 322
- Months supply, up 16.7%, from 1.2 to 1.4
- Homes for sale, up 6.4%, from 451 to 480