May 2009 Market Happenings

Jun 29, 2009 | Steve McGuire | In : Verani Realty News | Leave a comment

Real Estate Market Update for southern New Hampshire

Is now the time to buy a single family home in Rockingham, Hillsborough or Merrimack counties here in New Hampshire?

Good question!

Everyone wants to say “I bought at the best possible time” or ‘the market was at the bottom, when we purchased our new home”. Oh, the luxury of having a crystal ball. Given the fact that none of us have a crystal ball, the only thing we have is history of sales of single family homes here in southern New Hampshire, and then the individual interruption of what those numbers are telling us about future movements in the market.

Let’s start by looking at the quantity of single family sales by month, going back to 2003 and the percentage those sales are, compared to 2008 and to the average number of sales in the years 2006-2008.

Rockingham
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Avg06-08	% in 09	change 08
Jan	204	200	168	122	151	118	88	130.3	68%	75%
Feb	130	159	166	127	147	144	100	139.3	72%	69%
Mar	223	300	233	202	178	142	163	174.0	94%	115%
Apr	273	355	283	185	188	180	173	184.3	94%	96%
May	281	348	295	226	276	209	189	237.0	80%	90%

Hillsborough
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Avg06-08	% in 09	change 08
Jan	258	264	236	175	175	136	123	162.0	76%	90%
Feb	226	223	237	220	194	127	137	180.3	76%	108%
Mar	292	320	320	284	251	176	176	237.0	74%	100%
Apr	300	362	361	297	274	229	189	266.7	71%	83%
May	345	395	370	347	289	230	222	288.7	77%	97%

Merrimack
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Avg06-08	% in 09	change 08
Jan	104	83	97	74	65	72	37	70.3	53%	51%
Feb	100	86	85	73	90	63	46	75.3	61%	73%
Mar	133	114	108	97	89	43	75	76.3	98%	174%
Apr	132	132	136	121	112	65	74	99.3	74%	114%
May	143	149	182	151	124	87	108	120.7	90%	124%

Now lets look the average sale price for single family homes in the same period and the same comparisons percentage wise.

Rockingham
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Avg06-08	% in 09	change 08
Jan	319,135	333,305	374,745	364,804	358,729	333,919	290,488	352,484	82%	87%
Feb	311,634	349,747	386,321	376,145	338,096	320,808	267,015	345,016	77%	83%
Mar	317,953	345,200	381,199	372,820	356,057	339,923	271,273	356,267	76%	80%
Apr	316,922	342,020	375,789	400,248	359,436	338,737	297,374	366,140	81%	88%
May	321,003	364,376	383,174	388,876	395,543	357,097	290,282	380,505	76%	81%

Hillsborough
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Avg06-08	% in 09	change 08
Jan	259,017	274,931	314,338	297,041	314,999	288,557	258,747	300,199	86%	90%
Feb	252,047	274,126	302,391	313,135	304,262	286,828	238,055	301,408	79%	83%
Mar	254,915	273,784	306,548	316,062	296,397	275,310	261,121	295,923	88%	95%
Apr	264,194	294,920	312,613	311,470	312,330	313,386	234,753	312,395	75%	75%
May	267,387	296,931	323,670	322,981	323,209	270,847	248,668	305,679	81%	92%

Merrimack
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Avg06-08	% in 09	change 08
Jan	238,851	264,184	279,217	287,728	271,089	274,135	221,120	277,651	80%	81%
Feb	244,697	252,210	245,888	318,205	259,647	293,887	208,597	290,580	72%	71%
Mar	217,287	235,202	279,747	255,961	265,397	218,444	198,095	246,601	80%	91%
Apr	233,226	261,731	260,963	271,851	270,256	257,719	228,217	266,609	86%	89%
May	219,047	257,290	288,252	274,291	273,157	231,581	256,855	259,676	99%	111%