Inventory of New Hampshire homes for sale nosedives again in May

Homes would be selling briskly in New Hampshire if there was anything to sell. It’s a lack of inventory, inventory, inventory.

The number of homes for sale in the Granite State was down 40% in May compared to May 2019, and there weren’t that many then either. As a result, closings were down by a quarter, according to the latest monthly report of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.

There is no lack of demand, despite the coronavirus pandemic. When homes were on the market, buyers snapped them up at nearly listing price. A single-family home was sold 51 days after it was listed in May, four fewer days than a year ago, at 98.7% of asking price. The median home price for May was $319,900, a 6.6% increase over the $300,000 fetched a year ago.

Homes are so scarce that if none came on the market, there would be none for sale in less than two months, according to the statistics. Fortunately, just over 2,000 homes did come on the market in May, but that’s down by 31% compared to last May.

Year to date, it’s the same story, just not as acute as last month. New listings are down 20% and sales are down 8.4%. The median sale price was $310,000, up by 6.9%.

As for condos, closed sales were down 39% in May, and the median price of $248,940, was up 13.2%. Condos were on the market an average of 42 days and sold for 99.2% of asking price.

Indeed, there were no condos sold – zero – in Sullivan and Cheshire counties in May. Last May, 15 sold in Cheshire and seven in Sullivan.

Home sales were down 44% in Cheshire, the steepest decline among the state’s 10 counties. The highest median price was in Rockingham, at $409,000, up by 5.5% from a year ago. The median home price in Coos County was $114,750, which was down by 13.1%, the only county with a substantial price decline.