Housing sales plunge 39% vs. 2 years ago
Feb. 8—People bought nearly 40% fewer homes in New Hampshire in January than two years ago, the lowest one-month total in 12 years.
Meanwhile, some areas are beginning to see lower prices than a year ago.
Hillsborough County, which includes Manchester and Nashua, recorded a median price of $405,000 in January — $35,000 cheaper than a year ago, according to figures from the New Hampshire Realtors. There were 32% fewer homes sold there.
"We're now seeing the beginning stages of the inevitable shift in the market," said Dave Cummings, the group's vice president of communications and member engagement.
"And while it can be fun to watch sales and price numbers climb, especially for sellers, the idea that the peak may be in the rearview mirror for this cycle is certainly a good thing for the overall health of the economy," Cummings said.
The 626 single-family homes in the state sold in January were the fewest for any month since February 2011, when 585 were sold.
Higher interest rates and lower numbers of homes on the market are hurting sales.
Interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.13% across the country in late January. That compares with 3.55% a year earlier and 2.73% two years ago, according to Freddie Mac, a company that buys mortgages and repackages them to investors.
Statewide, prices in January grew at a slower rate for the third straight month.
In October, the median price was 12.1% higher than the previous year. That gap shrank in November and December as well as in January, when prices were only 4% higher than 12 months earlier.
Even with the price slowdown, New Hampshire saw a $65,000 gain in its median price in January compared with two years ago, but all but $16,000 of that came in 2021.
"We're still not out of the woods," Cummings said. "If you're looking for a single-family residence for under $400,000 in New Hampshire, good luck. At the end of January, there were a total of 456 in the entire state."
Hillsborough County had 87 homes in that price range. The city of Concord, in Merrimack County, had seven, he said.
An affordability index from the Realtors showed the cost of a home was higher in January than either one or two years earlier.
Separately, the Seacoast Board of Realtors reported January sales of single-family homes were 6.6% higher than a year ago, including a monthly record of 10 home sales of more than $1 million. The most expensive was a home at 98 Beach Hill Road in New Castle that sold for nearly $6.5 million.
