Some good news to share

New Hampshire home sales jump 6% in July

A New Hampshire Association of REALTORS recent press release gave us all some good real estate news as statewide residential home sales increased for the second consecutive month!  Sales data showed that residential home sales are up 6% in July 2009 as opposed to July 2008 and it further noted that it is the 1st time we’ve had consecutive increases in sales since 2005.

Home Inventory is down

At the end of January 2009 there was a solid 22 months supply of homes on the market statewide, July went out with just under 11 months worth of inventory.  A balanced market is usually 6-8 months.  Nationally the pending home sale index has shown five  consecutive months of gains. Something we haven’t seen in six years! All good news and good reason for being optimistic about the New Hampshire real estate market.

Locally even Hampstead and Atkinson have shown improvement

Year to date is Residential sales only. Rockingham County as a whole has not fared as well as Hampstead and Atkinson, showing a slight decrease over July 2008.

Median Sales Price still declining

Except Hampstead which actually had a slight increase interestingly enough

Market time is way down in Rockingham County

Average Days on the market has in most cases decreased dramatically.  Hampstead is down 27% and Atkinson down 58%. That is very good news!

Don’t forget the $8,000 dollar 1st time home buyer tax credit.

1st time home buyer mans that you CAN NOT have owned a home in the last THREE years. To qualify for the tax credit you need to close on your new home no later than on or before the last day in November. Usually it takes 6-8 weeks to close on a home, which means a buyer has about a month of opportunity left!

Don’t waste any time or you might blow this great opportunity

It is doubtful that this tax credit will be extended so if you are a 1st time home buyer wanting to take advantage of this opportunity don’t hesitate. Give me a call at 603-548-7728 or e-mail me at monika@monikamcgillicuddydotcom for more information. I would love to help you find that perfect home.
If you are a home owner curious if now is the time to list your Southern NH home or just want to chat real estate…give us a call. As always no obligation- no pressure just good solid real estate advice.

Jay and Monika McGillicuddy, REALTORS

New Hampshire Real Estate Blog

Graphics curtesy of the New Hampsire Association of REALTORS

Atkinson NH- June 2008 to June 2009

Atkinson NH has reason to smile

Atkinson NH real estate stats include single family homes and condominiums from June 2008 to June 2009and the results allow Atkinson to smile a little bit. Atkinson home owners are faring slightly better than neighboring Hampstead NH. But like all of Southern NH there is room for improvement!

*All reports are published Jul. 2009, based on data available at the end of Jun. 2009.
All reports presented are based on data supplied by the Massachussets Real Estate and New Hampshire Real Estate or their MLS. Neither the Associations nor their MLSs guarantee or are in anyway responsible for their accuracy. Data maintained by the Associations or their MLSs may not reflect all real estate activities in the market. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Why Atkinson NH should be my next home

Atkinson New Hampshire is a very popular Southern New Hampshire town.

I love driving through Atkinson along Rte 121, especially during the fall,  the road is embraced by trees and when the colors change…Wow is it ever pretty!  Atkinson is a just a pretty little New England town with a lot of character.

Atkinson’s location makes it very desirable for commuters.   Boston is an hour away, Maine 45 minutes northeast, 35 minutes east you’ll find fine ocean beaches or travel an hour or two north you’ll be in NH ski country.   Plus just a few minutes away is the town of  Plaistow,  which offers  many fine dining options and shopping.

Atkinson is located in Rockingham County and the community was originally named after Col. Theodore Atkinson, a landowner whose farm once covered a good portion of the town.  Atkinson contains 11.2 square miles of land area and 0.2 square miles of inland water area known as Big Island Pond.  The population, at the time of the 2007 census, was 6,572

Atkinson has some very nice  conservation trails and shares part of Big Island Pond a popular 500+/-acre lake with the towns of Hampstead and Derry NH.

Atkinson is also home to a little gem known as The Atkinson Resort & Country Club and a challenging 18 hole championship Golf Course all nestled in the charming countryside. In the wintertime residents use the golf course for cross county skiing.

Atkinson historically has had a strong re-sale value mainly due to its great location.

Pretty well everything is within easy reach including local town politics, which sad to say has amused many people.

There is an active and some say very negative blog that covers town politics called The Atkinson reporter.  I am a avid reader of The Atkinson Reporter and while that blog  can give you an insiders (some say slanted)  perspective on the local behind the scenes activity, I say please don’t let it taint you.  Atkinson from a real estate perspective has a lot of offer and it’s residents, many of which are proud to call Atkinson home, have a lot of community spirit.  One thing is for sure, if you get involved in town politics…you’ll never be bored.

There are currently 63 homes and condominiums on the market in Atkinson ranging in price from $186,000 to 1.4 million.

A look at the last 15 months of Atkinson real estate activity and the Atkinson absorption rate as of Dec 2008 will give you an idea what the real estate market is doing.  Please search our New Hampshire real estate blog for many articles related to the town of Atkinson.

If I didn’t live in Hampstead I would definitely love living in Atkinson … so if you’re considering a move to Atkinson give me a call I’d love to help you out.

Rockingham County real estate dilema…

You may have noticed that I’ve posted a few Absorption rate charts for some of our local towns. I’m planning on doing some more even though I know they’re boring reading unless of course you happen to live in that town and are thinking of selling or you already have your home on the market.

To date I’ve posted Hampstead, Atkinson and Salem NH.  But what does it all really mean and why should you care about Absorption rates?

Why should I care?

Traditionally Absorption Rates are used to watch market trends. is it a buyers market? A sellers market?  Or is it a balanced market? It is also used by REALTORS to help determine how long it would take a particular property in a particular price range to sell.   Just to give you some perspective a sellers market absorption rate would be less than six months. In 2005 at the height of our sellers market in Southern NH the absorption rate in Hampstead was three months or less. Today it’s a very different story.

The rule of thumb is…

Sellers Market = less than six months (usually 4-5)

Balanced Market = six months supply

Buyers Market = over six months supply

It’s not rocket science

But it gives you a snap shot of where we are. An Absorption Rate for all of Rockingham County shows us to have an average of 12.2 months supply of homes on the market. Of course that just confirms what we already know but it will be interesting to see how this changes next month. Will the numbers increase or decrease?  What do you think?

*All reports are published Nov. 2008, based on data available at the end of Oct. 2008.
All reports presented are based on data supplied by the Massachusetts Real Estate and New Hampshire Real Estate or their MLS. Neither the Associations nor their MLSs guarantee or are in anyway responsible for their accuracy. Data maintained by the Associations or their MLSs may not reflect all real estate activities in the market. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Atkinson NH Absorption rate…

The best way to try and show you what the Atkinson NH real estate market is doing is to create an Absorption rate for you. I recently posted an absorption rate for Hampstead NH for the same time frame. Sept 2007 to Oct 2008

While Atkinson is not as bad as Hampstead, you can compare the two by following this link to the Hampstead Absorption rate, it’s still far from pretty. Currently there is a 13+ month supply of homes on the market. This is based on sold data with no price range or size restrictions. If you narrowed it down to a specific price point and size it hardly changes at all, unlike Hampstead which changed significantly. Also note that in a little over a one month period the inventory dropped from a 27 month supply to a 13 month supply. This reflects homes being removed from the market (not sold)…probably for the holiday season.

Price of 250,000 -300,000

disclaimer….

All reports presented are based on data supplied by the Massachussets Real Estate, Boston Real Estate and New Hampshire Real Estate or their MLSs. Neither the Associations nor its MLSs guarantee or are in anyway responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Associations or their MLSs may not reflect all real estate activities in the market. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. COPYRIGHT © TRENDGRAPHIX, INC

Atkinson, New Hampshire Real Estate Sales Jan. through Nov. 2006 vs 2007

Atkinson, New Hampshire home sales from January 1st, 2006 through November 30th 2006 versus home sales during the same time frame for 2007.

Although home sales are down by just a few homes the average and median prices are down quite a lot. Also, you will see how dollars per square footage are down.

As we near the end of the year we are seeing inventories decrease due to the Holiday season and home sellers wanting to wait until spring. Read more