Home prices kept rising and total home sales fell statewide, although inventory rose substantially.
Another month, another double-digit percentage increase in the statewide median single-family sale price despite continued cooling of buyer demand.
That’s according the latest real estate data tabulated by The Warren Group, publisher of The Registry Review.
The statewide median sale price was up 11 percent from July 2021, to $432,000, The highest it’s ever been in July but down slightly from June’s statewide median single-family sale price of $440,500.
There were only 1,326 single-family sales last month, too, a 9 percent drop from June 2021 and the lowest number of homes sold in July since 2012, when the state was clawing its way out of the Great Recession.
Year-to-date, there have been 6,558 single-family sales at a median sale price of $415,000. That represents a 10 percent drop in the number of sales year-over-year and a 14 percent increase in the median sale price.
July also marked the second straight year-over-year decline in pending sales, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors, with only 1,552 single-family homes going under agreement, an 8.6 percent drop from July 2021. June saw a similar slide, down 8.7 percent to 1,725 over the same period.
Homes continue to sell quickly, NHAR said, with the average number of days on market sinking 5.9 percent year-over-year to 16 in July, up only slightly from the 13 seen in June.
The number of new listings took a hit last month. NHAR said only 1,887 single-family homes coming online in July, a 12.7 percent drop from the same month last year. Year to date, total new listings are off 2021’s pace by 9.1 percent.
Total single-family inventory was down, too. July saw 2,337 homes for sale compared to 2,445 in July 2021. Inventory was up month-over-month, as well. However, the month-over-month gains from June to July clocked in a 13 percent gain, typically an interval where monthly inventory falls – possibly a sign that interest rates and home prices have risen high enough that price increases will begin moderating in the months ahead.
Still, the prevalence of bidding wars and above-asking offers remained high, with the average single-family seller trading their home for 103.4 percent of the list price, only a small decline from the 103.9 percent seen in July 2021.
Across the country, competition among buyers has waned over the summer. A new report from brokerage and listings portal Redfin suggests homebuyer competition took a nosedive between June and July – but it’s still stronger in Northeast metros than in Sun Belt states.
Nationwide, 44.3 percent of home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition on a seasonally adjusted basis in July, compared with a revised rate of 50.9 percent one month earlier and 63.8 percent one year earlier, the company said. That’s down from a two-year high of 69.8 percent in January of this year.
In Greater Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, the closest markets to New Hampshire included in the Redfin report, competition was more robust. In Boston, 53.2 percent of offers its agents wrote in the region in July met with at least one competing offer, compared to 73.2 percent in June and 61.1 percent in July 2021. In Worcester, recently a destination for many priced out of buying in Boston, the figures were 54.8 percent last month compared to 62.3 percent in June and 72.4 percent in July 2021.
