The total number of homes sold so far this year is remaining at historic lows as the number of new homes being listed continues to stay below pre-pandemic trends.
The biggest pulse of homes sold yet during 2021’s spring housing market has now officially been recorded in registries of deeds across the state and the result is yet another home-price record.
The median single-family sale price hit $390,000 in July, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. That’s $5,000 higher than the record set in June and $15,000 higher than the record set in May.
Across New Hampshire, 1,445 homes were sold last month, a 24.66 percent decline from the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic warped the 2020 housing market, and an 18.5 percent drop-off in sales closed in the same month in 2020.
Year-to-date, only 7,194 single-family homes have been sold so far this year. That’s the lowest figure since 2014, when the state was still shaking off the effects of the Great Recession. It’s also substantially lower than the sales totals typically seen in the years leading up to the pandemic. By comparison, 8,898 single-family homes had been sold statewide by July 31, 2019, and 9,518 had been sold statewide by the same date in 2016.
As of July 31, the year-to-date median sale price sat at $360,000 for a single-family home. That’s up 27.66 percent from the same date in 2019.
As market-watchers have been noting all year, the significant year-over-year jumps in sale price and drops in total transactions appear to be related.
The New Hampshire Association of Realtors’ Affordability index hit record lows in June and May, when many of the homes whose sales closed in July went under agreement. The index compares the statewide median household income to the income necessary to qualify for the median-priced home under prevailing interest rates.
Even as mortgage interest rates hovered at or below 3 percent for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan, according to Freddie Mac, the NHAR Affordability index entered territory not seen since the height of the late 2000s housing bubble.
The total number of homes for sale continued to sit at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, with only 1,737 single-family homes available during July. That’s a 40.2 percent drop from 2020’s already-low levels and a fraction of the 5,205 available in July 2019.
New listings were comparable to 2020’s levels, with 1,832 single-family houses hitting the market in July. That total was only 14.3 percent down from the same month last year, but much less than the 2,393 that came on the market in July 2019. The market only had 1.1 months of supply this July, according to NHAR’s calculations, as buyer interest remains strong.
