New Hampshire 2012 home sales continue upward climb
The pace of New Hampshire residential home sales continued to trend sharply upward, as May marked the fifth consecutive month of increased unit sales, according to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.
The report showed a 28 percent increase in sales for May 2012 (1,221) compared to May 2011 (956) and a 21 percent increase in year to date sales compared to the first five months of last year.
Perhaps more importantly, despite a statewide 2.4 percent dip in the May median price compared to May 2011, six of New Hampshire’s 10 counties witnessed a median price increase.
“I think it’s fair to say that we’re actually feeling this shift in activity, rather than just seeing it on a data sheet,” said NHAR President John Rice, a 40-year veteran of the real estate industry and an agent with Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty in Rye. “We are simply busier than we have been in recent memory.”
The 28 percent unit sales spike in May followed increases in January (20 percent), February (13 percent), March (17 percent) and April (21 percent), totaling 4,440 residential home sales in 2012, compared to 3,670 at this point a year ago.
“These are very, very solid numbers, in the context of where we’ve been in recent years,” said Rice, adding that he would not be surprised to see at least 12,000 sales by the end of the year, which would mark the first time since 2006 that the 12,000 threshold has been reached.
“Where in the past we’ve been merely hopeful that things would start to turn, now we appear to have substance to justify that hope.”
In terms of local markets, each of the state’s 10 counties saw unit sales increases in May and have experienced double-digit sales increases for the first five months combined, compared to the same period last year.
May-only sales increased by 73 percent in Belknap County, 51 percent in Strafford County, 46 percent in Merrimack County, 44 percent in Carroll County, 40 percent in Cheshire County, 27 percent in Hillsborough County and 26 percent in Grafton County.
Median price for May-only increased in Cheshire (26 percent), Coos (21 percent), Carroll (11 percent), Sullivan (10 percent), Grafton (7 percent) and Rockingham (2 percent).
NHAR
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