$6.6 million home sale breaks Portsmouth record; Seacoast median home price now $900K

PORTSMOUTH — A new real estate record has been set in Portsmouth with the sale of a $6.6 million waterfront residence last month, the highest-priced single-family home ever sold in the city, according to the Seacoast Board of Realtors.

The sale of the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house at 70 Martine Cottage Road, which online listings reveal sits on nearly 16 acres of land, occurred on July 18.

Seacoast Board of Realtors statistician John Rice, an associate broker for Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty, reported the sale has topped the previous highest-selling home in Portsmouth by $350,000. The former most expensive home in Portsmouth, a mansion at 325 Little Harbor Road, sold for $6.25 million in September 2015.

The closing price of the Martine Cottage Road home, which paid $46,671 in taxes last year, puts it on par with expensive Seacoast properties typically abutting the ocean. The property comes with a detached two-car garage, a standalone barn, an abandoned boat house and a rental cottage on site.

The property was listed by Aland Realty Group realtor Jeff Mountjoy and sold by Red Post Realty agent Jim Russ.

Martine Cottage has storied history

“This ‘off the grid’ home builds upon the original historic Martine Cottage property and offers incredible privacy and seclusion just minutes from downtown Portsmouth,” a listing for the property states.

The home, known as the Martine Cottage, was owned previously by Arthur Carey, who also owned Carey Cottage on nearby Little Harbor Road. In the late 1880s, Carey sold the property to his friend, Boston architect R. Clipston Sturgis, whose family passed it down over multiple generations.

In 2009, Sturgis’ great nephew, Alan Sturgis, sold the historic home and lot to Maryland-based Thomas Johnson, who has ties to Portsmouth from running the research vessels at the Shoals Marine Laboratory for years. Johnson gave Sturgis lifetime tenancy on the property until his death in 2015.

A decade later, Johnson hired an architect and builder to renovate the 300-plus-year-old cottage, which included converting it to a net zero, Energy Star-certified structure with a solar array on its rooftop.

Now the home, which Johnson sold in July, is the most expensive to ever be sold in Portsmouth.

“It was a very personal project in terms of doing the renovations that were suited for me,” Johnson said. “It was a very interesting project because there was a lot of discovery along the way.”

The Port City residence is still a long way from taking the top spot on the list of highest-selling homes in Seacoast history, however, as a Rye home on Straws Point Road that changed hands for $25 million in late December sits atop the heap.

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Median Seacoast home sale price in July exceeds $900K

Aside from the closing of the Portsmouth estate, another real estate record was set in the Seacoast last month. The median sale price of a home in the Seacoast exceeded $900,000 last month for the first time since the Seacoast Board of Realtors began tracking local real estate sales over a dozen years ago.

“The record numbers we keep seeing reflect not only the law of supply and demand, but also the strong consumer confidence that buyers have in Seacoast real estate,” said Jessica Ritchie, president of the Seacoast Board of Realtors. “July was a very strong month for our market.”

The Seacoast Board of Realtors compiles real estate transaction statistics from the following communities: Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, North Hampton, Newmarket, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook, and Stratham.

Low inventory drives high prices

Rice’s report on July transactions throughout the 13 municipalities notes the median price of all 50 homes sold last month - the lowest July total ever recorded by the board- resulted in a monthly median sale price of $905,750. July marked the third straight month where a new median sale price record has been set.

Twenty homes sold for over $1 million last month in the Seacoast, while only five sold for less than $400,000, per a report compiled by Rice. Thirteen homes sold for between $400,000 and $700,000, and another dozen sold in a range from $700,000 to $1 million.

Inventory, as it has for months on end, remains low, and the July sales volume was a 31.5% decrease year-over-year, as there were 73 homes sold in July 2022.

At the start of August, according to Rice, just 106 Seacoast homes were actively listed on the market, the fewest ever to close out July.

“For the year, single-family sales are off 18.3% while the median sale price of $718,500 is up 9.2% from last year,” Rice’s report reads.

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Top condo in Portsmouth sells for $1.6 million

Condominium sales last month tied the total from July 2022, with 57 units changing hands. The monthly median sale price for Seacoast condominiums was $536,250.

“For the first seven months of 2023, condominium sales are off 13% from 2022, but median sale prices are up 5.3%,” the report adds.

The most expensive condominium sold in July was an 1,878-square-foot unit on Bow Street in Portsmouth along the Piscataqua River, which closed for $1.6 million.

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This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: $6.6M home sale sets Portsmouth record; median Seacoast home is $900K