Why Choose Hampstead New Hampshire for your next home…

* see also an updated 2009 post about Life in Hampstead NH

Hampstead NH the little town that can!

Recently I entered an on-line contest. The contest required me to write to a set of fictional buyers explaining why my town and state would be a perfect place for them to move to.  I wrote about my home town of Hampstead New Hampshire and I ended up winning 1st place! How cool is that?

First place…I was so surprised. I’ve reprinted the entire article as it appeared on the on-line real estate network Active Rain.

copyright Monika McGillicuddy 2007

Hello Michelle and Tom,

Thank you so much for contacting me and most importantly Welcome to New Hampshire.

I think once you see what we have to offer, you’ll fall in love with New Hampshire and Hampstead in particular. I hope that I can help you “see and feel“ a little of what I see and feel about Hampstead.

I’ve included in this e-mail some links to articles that I have written about Hampstead and the surrounding areas, a short video and 2 virtual tours of the town. One is a fall/winter tour and the other is one I made especially for you.

As we discussed on the phone today I have gone ahead and set you up to receive automatic listing alerts so that when anything new enters the market that meets your criteria you will be notified.

I have also set up an account for you on our website that will allow you to search all currently listed homes in Hampstead and surrounding communities.

Just follow the link below and if you have any problems with the directions I gave you, just let me know… don’t forget your pass word is “Monika”.

Home search

Unfortunately there aren’t any homes currently available that would allow your children to walk to school. But that could change at any moment and as I mentioned when we spoke today the actual time spent on the school bus is minimum.

Hampstead NH a bustling community!

Let me tell you a little about Hampstead but before I begin my tale I must confess I am extremely biased towards Hampstead. As I mentioned on the phone I have lived in Hampstead since 1972 and watched as the town has grown from a small village to bustling little community.

Yet even with all the conveniences of a much larger town…shopping, restaurants, function halls, community activities, a lovely town beach and recreation fields, Hampstead still retains that special small town feel.

Hampstead will surely be everything you’re looking for in a community and I know from what you’ve told me that a nice community is important to you both.

Swimming, recreation fields, town planned activities Hampstead NH has it all!

You mentioned how much your children love swimming so I drove to the town beach and filmed a short little video for you to watch. I am very much an amateur when it comes to creating videos but I think it will help you get a feel for the area.

Hampstead also has town wide tennis courts, two health clubs, a memorial gym where town events like the men’s basketball league plays and some wonderful walking trails.

Throughout the year and especially in the summer there are many community wide events. From weekly concerts to a gala July 4th celebration and annual holiday parade, there is something to please everyone. All this plus Hampstead boasts a great Southern NH location and is part of Rockingham County.

Hampstead NH offers an ideal location!

Our location is ideal as we are just 30 miles south of Concord, 30 miles southwest of Portsmouth, and Boston is just an hour south of us.

I know that you had some concerns about the commute for Tom so I’ve mapped it out for you and I think it will be about 40 minutes depending on traffic.

Hampstead traditionally has enjoyed a strong resale value and is known as a desirable town due in part to it’s proximity to the border of Massachusetts. Thus creating an ideal commuter location which I believe is what attracted you to Hampstead to begin with.

It really couldn’t get any better than Hampstead where a quick 30 minute ride east will find you enjoying a fine ocean beach where you can create wonderful sand castles and enjoy the picture-perfect coastline of New Hampshire.
Travel an hour north and you can be skiing and exploring our beautiful and majestic White Mountains. Outdoor activities like camping and golfing to please even the most discriminating golfer are all within a few miles of Hampstead.

Hampstead NH offers more than a community…It’s a lifestyle!

Our town motto is ‘Please slow down and enjoy our town.’ When you come for your visit I’m sure you’ll understand why. I’ve mailed you a fabulous Relocation DVD produced by my company Prudential Verani Realty (and a bag of popcorn to munch on while watching it). The DVD is a virtual tour of Rockingham County, full of wonderful pictures and information that is helpful when relocating to New Hampshire. I’ve also included the financing and home inspection information we discussed. I hope you enjoy the DVD as it really showcases some of New Hampshire’s special places and events.I think you’ll find our state nearly picture perfect with a quality of life that invokes all the feelings of yesteryear yet with all the amenities a busy lifestyle demands.This is a perfect time to buy in Hampstead as we have a wide selection of homes available and many of them meet your requirement of a 4 bedroom, multi bath home with a 2 car garage all for under $400,000, I think you’ll be very pleased by the selection. I’ve included 3 homes listed in MLS that meet your criteria and while they are listed with my company none are my personal listings.

I look forward to our meeting in a few weeks but in the interim please explore our website, read my blog and get to know both me and New Hampshire at your leisure. There is a wealth of information available and I am but an e-mail or phone call away to answer any questions that you might have.

Come visit Hampstead NH and stay a while!

You’ve asked me to describe Hampstead, to make it come alive for you and show you why your next home should be “Hampstead”…I hope I’ve succeeded.
Online Videos by Veoh.comThank you for giving me the opportunity.

Monika

Jay and Monika McGillicuddy

Prudential Verani Realty

2 Main Street Hampstead NH

603-327-0246 direct line

603-434-2377 office

Web hits…the buyers are out there!

Our real estate company Prudential Verani Realty has a pretty impressive web presence and they track it very seriously. A web presence is pretty important in real estate today as I recently wrote about here.

Internet leads take a long time to cultivate…up to a year in some cases from start to finish. So a company like Prudential Verani has a lot of money and time invested in their website. Is it perfect? No, but it’s pretty darn good.

I’ve copied a graphic demonstrating our web hits for the month of August. The figures are not 100% accurate as many brokers call each other to set up showings. So the Broker showings on our homes figure, in reality would be higher. Also keep in mind this a one month total.� Pretty impressive I’d say.

Monika

August New Hampshire Market Trend Report…

 Reality Check: The Graying of New Hampshire

New Hampshire Market Trend Report published by the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS and reprinted with permission. Peter Francese as always, does an outstanding job with his report.

-by Peter Francese

It’s hard to pick up any paper in the state and not see another story about our aging population and our graying workforce – right near a story about another age-restricted or senior housing project. The Sept. 10 issue of the Portsmouth Herald had a story with this lead: “The Executive Council approved $12,000 to be used to see if Rye is a good place to build affordable housing for seniors.”

Considering that the median priced home in Rye is around $500,000, they can probably use a few affordable housing units. But notice how they qualified it: No workers wanted, only seniors. The story goes on to describe how the committee got a zoning change to allow a retirement community of 22 units on just 10 acres. You can bet that no housing for younger workers would ever be considered at that density.

At the same time, a hospital a short drive from Rye has over 150 jobs they cannot fill in large part because applicants so often turn down their average offer of a $50,000 salary plus benefits. The reason most gave: “There’s no housing within a reasonable commuting distance that I can afford.”

Let’s assume that, if they could have afforded it, an average of two-thirds of those job-seekers would have bought a home here. That’s as many as 100 sales that a New Hampshire REALTOR® did not make. If the average sale could have been at, let’s say $250,000, then that was $25 million in sales lost to a state where housing costs are more affordable for working-age residents.

The workforce in New Hampshire is now growing at slightly less than 1 percent per year, and that meager growth is forecasted to approach zero within five years. Working people have been the strongest leg of the three legs of housing demand in New Hampshire — the other two, of course, being second home owners and retirees.

New Hampshire REALTORS® will see a significant decline in their business when workforce growth in our state drops further and that previously strong leg of demand withers. Our state cannot sustain a vibrant economy or build sustainable communities on tourists, part-time residents and retirees.

But there is no reason to pick on the fine town of Rye. There are a great many other municipalities in the state that either prefer high density age-restricted housing, or extremely large minimum lot sizes, so that no affordable workforce housing is possible. The reason given is that if they permit any such housing, their school population will “explode” and their property taxes will rise.

The chart below shows what has happened, over the past six years, when thousands of units of age-restricted housing have been built, but hardly any workforce housing. Public school enrollment has dropped 2 percent but school costs have risen 39 percent.

The frustration many New Hampshire property owners feel about rapidly escalating property taxes is very real. But as that chart shows, it’s not the kids’ fault. Most public education costs are either fixed or contractually obligated. Preferring only child-proof housing hasn’t solved the problem of rising property taxes, and it’s not likely to in the future. But it will hurt home sales. It already has.

Turning now to the data on August sales, we see that during the first eight months of this year about 8 percent fewer homes were sold. That added up to a bit over 700 units not sold compared to last year, a drop in volume of $244 million. Ouch.

But you know, there are at least a dozen hospitals in the state with job openings like the one mentioned above. That volume drop might never have occurred, despite the poor national market conditions, if the appropriate inventory had been there.

Average prices of New Hampshire sold homes has held pretty steady at an average of $306,900, down only 0.9 percent compared to the first eight months of last year. The average sale price for a condominium in the state for the first eight months was $211,200, which is 1.8 percent higher than last year.

 

 

New Hampshire Real Estate Market Trends for September 2007

The New Hampshire Association of REALTORS recently published their September 2007 Market trends report. As usual Peter Francese does an awesome job interpreting the market. This report like many of his previous reports, talks about New Hampshire’s graying workforce and the fact that we need to attract younger people…make it affordable to live in New Hampshire for those just starting out.

My son and his wife bought a house last year (of course they used me) but sadly, they could not afford a home in the town they both grew up in. Despite having good incomes, they had to travel an hour north to find an affordable home. I’d like to see that change, make it affordable for young adults so they can buy homes in the town they grew up in. Wouldn’t that be nice?

NHAR market trends reprinted with permission.

SEPTEMBER 2007

Reality check: Not all the decline in sales
is due to poor market conditions
-by Peter Francese

It’s hard to pick up any paper in the state and not see another story about our aging population and our graying workforce – right near a story about another age-restricted or senior housing project. The Sept. 10 issue of the Portsmouth Herald had a story with this lead: “The Executive Council approved $12,000 to be used to see if Rye is a good place to build affordable housing for seniors.”

“The workforce in New Hampshire is now growing at slightly less than 1 percent per year.”

Considering that the median priced home in Rye is around $500,000, they can probably use a few affordable housing units. But notice how they qualified it: No workers wanted, only seniors. The story goes on to describe how the committee got a zoning change to allow a retirement community of 22 units on just 10 acres. You can bet that no housing for younger workers would ever be considered at that density.

At the same time, a hospital a short drive from Rye has over 150 jobs they cannot fill in large part because applicants so often turn down their average offer of a $50,000 salary plus benefits. The reason most gave: “There’s no housing within a reasonable commuting distance that I can afford.”

Let’s assume that, if they could have afforded it, an average of two-thirds of those job-seekers would have bought a home here. That’s as many as 100 sales that a New Hampshire REALTOR® did not make. If the average sale could have been at, let’s say $250,000, then that was $25 million in sales lost to a state where housing costs are more affordable for working-age residents.

The workforce in New Hampshire is now growing at slightly less than 1 percent per year, and that meager growth is fore casted to approach zero within five years. Working people have been the strongest leg of the three legs of housing demand in New Hampshire — the other two, of course, being second home owners and retirees.

New Hampshire REALTORS® will see a significant decline in their business when workforce growth in our state drops further and that previously strong leg of demand withers. Our state cannot sustain a vibrant economy or build sustainable communities on tourists, part-time residents and retirees.

But there is no reason to pick on the fine town of Rye. There are a great many other municipalities in the state that either prefer high density age-restricted housing, or extremely large minimum lot sizes, so that no affordable workforce housing is possible. The reason given is that if they permit any such housing, their school population will “explode” and their property taxes will rise.

The chart below shows what has happened, over the past six years, when thousands of units of age-restricted housing have been built, but hardly any workforce housing. Public school enrollment has dropped 2 percent but school costs have risen 39 percent.

The frustration many New Hampshire property owners feel about rapidly escalating property taxes is very real. But as that chart shows, it’s not the kids’ fault. Most public education costs are either fixed or contractually obligated. Preferring only child-proof housing hasn’t solved the problem of rising property taxes, and it’s not likely to in the future. But it will hurt home sales. It already has.

Turning now to the data on August sales, we see that during the first eight months of this year about 8 percent fewer homes were sold. That added up to a bit over 700 units not sold compared to last year, a drop in volume of $244 million. Ouch.

But you know, there are at least a dozen hospitals in the state with job openings like the one mentioned above. That volume drop might never have occurred, despite the poor national market conditions, if the appropriate inventory had been there.

Average prices of New Hampshire sold homes has held pretty steady at an average of $306,900, down only 0.9 percent compared to the first eight months of last year. The average sale price for a condominium in the state for the first eight months was $211,200, which is 1.8 percent higher than last year.

January-August 2007 NH residential (non-condominium) sales

[TABLE=3]
Source: Northern New England Real Estate Network (NNEREN). Statistics are based on information from NNEREN for the respective periods shown for the respective regions in the State of New Hampshire or all towns in the State of New Hampshire. All analysis and commentary related to the statistics is that of the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS® and not that of NNEREN.

Kennebunkport and a lovely full moon rising

A perfect day turned into a perfect evening…

Web Presence…do you have one?

Today very few buyers look in the newspaper or magazines to find a home. Why should they when they can just about find anything they want on the Internet. Plus the net is instant information. Buyers today want their information fast, concise and on their terms. No hassles- no high pressure sales agents.

It’s a very different market with very unique buyers…buyers that a lot of agents and sellers are not used to and in some cases simply don’t understand. That means marketing efforts need to change… attitudes need to change. This is a tough market for a seller and a great one for a buyer.

We know that nearly 80% of the buyers and I bet it’s more now, start their home search on line. In NH we know that 47% of those actually found the home they ended up buying on line.

A recent survey by the California Association of REALTORS said that 92% of the Internet buyers found their agent on line. Does your agent have an online presence? Does your home? Is that important…you bet it is.

Have you Googled your real estate agents name lately? Google mine and see what comes up. I’m pretty much an open book. Is your agent? In this market you need all the advantages you can get and that means reaching the potential buyers on their terms…their way. Their way is crucial!
That National Association of REALTORS� publishes a yearly report on Home Buyers and Sellers, they also break this report down to reflect the individual states. Having stats for the state of New Hampshire rather than nationwide is a valuable tool one that Jay and I use.

For example did you know that the average buyer purchases a home 15 miles for their previous residence… I didn’t know that!

That means that people really don’t move very far and that the potential new owner of your home could be living in your town. All the more important is that yard sign of yours. Make sure especially as fall and winter approaches that your sign is clearly visible from all angles. Please…please keep shrubbery trimmed around the sign…nothing is as frustrating for the REALTOR� professionals and potential home buyers as a hidden for sale sign!

You want your house to Pop…don’t hide the sign!

Did you know that 89% of New Hampshire’s home buyers purchased their home through a REALTOR� Professional? 89% now that’s a huge percentage if you ask me…of course I’m probably a little prejudiced since I am a REALTOR� Professional… but I still think that’s a huge percentage!� Hey don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t try to sell on your own if that’s what you want to do but consider the facts…89% that means that 11% came from some other source…maybe from your For Sale By Owner sign or maybe not?? Oh by the way out of that 11% something like 4% are people you already know.

So now think about this…28% of the home buyers learned about the home they purchased through a REALTOR� Professional and 47% learned about it through the Internet…that means that you need to be sure your REALTOR� Professional has a strong company website!

Folks you need to check out your real estate companies website…don’t let anyone fool you about this one. Yes the personal touch is still needed..Thank goodness!� 89% bought their home through a REALTOR� Professional BUT 47% found their home on the Net! You betcha…a solid web presence is crucial to your success!!!

Lets look at the rest of the story.
We know that:
28% of the buyers found the home they bought from a REALTOR� Professional.
47% found the home they bought from the Internet.
12% found the home they bought from a yard sign.
AND get this 2% from print newspaper advertisement.
6% from a friend, relative or neighbor.
3% directly from the sellers.
1% from the home builder or their agent.
1% from a home book or magazine.

So where do you think your buyers are? I bet their surfing the web, watching and waiting. Can they find your agent…your home on the web?

Time to change your attitude.

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