Vaccines may be landing in the arms of New Hampshire residents, but a number of potential sellers are still holding off, with new listings down in January on a year-over-year basis even as they increased on a month-over-month basis.

Only 944 single-family homes hit the market statewide last month, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. That’s a 12.8 percent decline compared to January 2020, but a 16.69 percent increase over December.

That increase was not enough to keep up with rising demand, however. The total number of single-family houses for sale across New Hampshire dropped by 12.7 percent from December to January, NHAR reported, to 1,207, even as the average number of days a home spent on the market rose from 33 to 38 over the same period. The number of months’ supply on the market right now is 0.7 months, down from 0.9 in December and the lowest the state has seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The intense surge in demand seen in 2020 drove statewide home prices higher than they’ve ever been. The 2020 median single-family sale price hit $320,000 and the 2020 median condominium sale price hit $240,000, representing 12 percent increase and 14 percent increases over the prior year according to The Warren Group, publisher of The Registry Review. 

Combined with national mortgage rate-lock data indicating that buyer demand for homes is increasing over 2020, it’s possible January’s housing statistics are another indicator that the 2021 housing market will be even busier than 2020’s, even as NHAR reports that early data points to a “robust” and “active” year for new construction despite increases in the cost of lumber and other material costs.