Below is some awesome information on the state of our New Hampshire economy and it is actually positive news! No gloom and doom, just great information showing that New Hampshire is looking to rebound from this housing slump in good fashion. The information is sent to all of us NH Realtors from Peter Frances, the Demographic Advisor for the NH Association of Realtors.
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Chart I below shows the growth in number of people with jobs from May of last year to May of this year. New Hampshire’s growth at 1.6 percent is way above any other state in this region as well as being far better than the barely positive US figure of 0.2 percent. Chart II shows that our unemployment rate at 4 percent is the lowest in the region and well below the national 5.5 percent rate.
Finally, Chart III shows the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s index (as reported by the Boston Bank) of economic activity for each of the New England states and the nation. At nearly 200, the index for New Hampshire is far and away the region’s highest and is also 24 percent above the national index.
Source for Charts I, II and III: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
If any state is going to recover in a timely fashion from this recession and reverse the decline in home sales, it’s going to be New Hampshire. From a pricing point of view, the recovery may already be in progress. Median home price for residences statewide have risen steadily for the past four months and are now 11 percent above what they were in February.
For the first half of this year, the statewide median home price is still 8 percent below the first half of last year. That’s way below the national drop, and at our current rate of climb, prices here should be in positive territory by the end of the year.
Nevertheless, only 1,127 residential properties and 281 condominiums were sold statewide in June and those sales were respectively 20 percent and 38 percent below the sales for June of last year. So prices may be slowly rising, but closing a sale is harder. The home next door to ours, for example, just sold after nearly three years on the market, to the great relief of everyone involved. Perhaps it’s a harbinger of better future buyer activity.
NH residential (non-condominium) sales
|
County
|
Units sold YTD
|
% change 2007-08
|
Median
price YTD |
% change 2007-08
|
Average price YTD
|
% change 2007-08
|
|
Belknap
|
272
|
-21%
|
$220,000
|
-7%
|
$330,681
|
-8%
|
|
Carroll
|
288
|
-16%
|
$203,000
|
-10%
|
$302,620
|
-8%
|
|
Cheshire
|
278
|
-19%
|
$187,000
|
-11%
|
$228,800
|
-1%
|
|
Coos
|
125
|
-23%
|
$105,000
|
-7%
|
$131,672
|
-6%
|
|
Grafton
|
295
|
-31%
|
$200,000
|
-8%
|
$265,241
|
-3%
|
|
Hillsborough
|
1,260
|
-22%
|
$252,000
|
-10%
|
$287,427
|
-8%
|
|
Merrimack
|
460
|
-29%
|
$225,000
|
-9%
|
$257,145
|
-5%
|
|
Rockingham
|
1,075
|
-17%
|
$295,500
|
-6%
|
$351,741
|
-3%
|
|
Strafford
|
423
|
-25%
|
$223,000
|
-11%
|
$246,397
|
-8%
|
|
Sullivan
|
172
|
-22%
|
$166,500
|
-12%
|
$220,162
|
-3%
|
|
Statewide
|
4,648
|
-22%
|
$241,000
|
-8%
|
$287,451
|
-5%
|
Source: Northern New England Real Estate Network (NNEREN). Statistics are based on information from NNEREN for the respective periods shown for the respective regions in the State of New Hampshire or all towns in the State of New Hampshire. All analysis and commentary related to the statistics is that of the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS® and not that of NNEREN.
The Real Estate Market Trends newsletter is provided for the benefit of the members of the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS®, Inc. ©Copyright 2007 New Hampshire Association of REALTORS®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Peter Francese is the Demographic Advisor to the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS®
