In looking at the market activity so far this year we have really seen a drop in the $750,000 and up transactions. Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article – “High-End Homes Frozen Out of Budding Housing Rebound” you can find the article here via Yahoo News
Some of the issues that are mentioned in the article are the effect of tighter restrictions and higher rates on Jumbo Loans. I have also heard that many of the larger banks are not doing Jumbo Loans at all! Recently I spoke with Loan Officer Elizabeth Dabrowski (603-477-3865) from Sugar River Bank about this and she has assured me that they are happy to lend in the Jumbo Loans market and their main requirement is 30% down no matter the total loan amount.
As you will see in the chart below sales this year are up significantly in the Sub $300,000 market. I would attribute a fair portion of this to the first time home buyer tax credit as well as the overall affordability of today’s real estate market. This holds true for the rest of the categories below as prices have come way down and people are able to get that vacation or waterfront home at a significant discount compared to previous years.
The higher priced homes (typically lake properties) as you can see in the chart have had very little activity. In previous years we have seen a flurry of activity in the last quarter of the year for this price range, however no one has a crystal ball to tell us what the heck is going to happen!
I believe that if you are looking to purchase a lake house in this price range you are at the cross roads of a very unique opportunity. Most of these properties have been on the market for quite some time and I’m sure many of the owners are not looking forward to taking care of their property this coming winter. Additionally many of these higher end lake homes have not sold which presents quite the opportunity when it comes to negotiations. I believe it is well worth taking the time to view and consider purchasing a lake property if a 20% +/- swing in price would work for you. It’s still a buyers market and now is the time to take advantage of it!
This link will take you to all the properties that are currently for sale on Lake Sunapee, Little Lake Sunapee and Pleasant Lake.
SunapeeRegion Lake Properties_August 2009 (this is a large pdf document that may take awhile to load at first)
| Price Range | 2008 | 2009 | Difference |
| 0 – 300,000 | 21 | 31 | 10 |
| 300,000 – 500,000 | 14 | 18 | 4 |
| 500,000 – 750,000 | 7 | 14 | 7 |
| 750,000 – 1,000,000 | 4 | 2 | -2 |
| 1,000,000 – 5,000,000 | 6 | 1 | -5 |
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