NH median home price continued to climb in May as listings remain scarce

Despite rising interest rates, the median sale price of a single-family home in New Hampshire climbed to $460,000 in May, according to the NH Association of Realtors. That’s a 14.6 percent increase from last year, but more importantly $16,500 higher than the previous month. Condos sold for a median price of $350,000 in May, a nearly 17 percent increase.

But while prices have gone up, home and condo sales have slowed because there are still not enough homes for sale.

While new home listings rose 4.2 percent in May, but year to date they are down 9.2 percent. Not coincidentally, that’s the exact percentage by which closed sales declined. In fact, the falloff in volume is even steeper than the rise in prices, meaning overall volume, and therefore Realtors’ compensation, has fallen for the fourth month in a row.

But if a Realtor does get a home to sell, they don’t have to work as hard to sell it.

Homes, on average, are snapped up in 17 days, a week less than a year ago. And they are selling for 5.2 percent above the asking price, on average.

When a home enters the market, said Alan DeStefano, president of the Lakes Region Board of Realtors, “they go quickly, maybe instantaneously. It’s cooled slightly, but it hasn’t cooled on pricing.”

In May, the median home price rose the highest in Grafton County, climbing 26 percent, to $387,500. But the median price remains the highest in Rockingham County, where it sits at $589,000. Coos County was one of the few places where the median price fell, by 18 percent, to $200,000, the lowest median price by far in the state.