NH Market Trends February 2021
Home sales in Rockingham and Strafford County started the year just where they left off at the end of 2020 - by setting another all-time high for the month of January coming in at 424 sales which was 13.7% higher than the previous record set last year of 373. Currently the pending sales are up 19.5% over the same time last year which points to the strong sales numbers continuing throughout the first quarter of 2021. Active inventory continued to drop even further from the record lows from the month before, coming in 10% below last month and 53% below the same time last year. As of last month we were at the lowest level of active inventory we had seen (447 units) and this month we saw that figure fall to only 398 units. Total units under agreement have surged year over year and are now well over double the active listings with 931 under agreement units. Although we expect sales figures for the first quarter to remain at these recent high levels due to the amount of units currently under agreement, unless active inventory sees a spike in the coming months there will not be enough inventory on the market to sustain the current sales pace.
Average homes sales price for Rockingham & Strafford County started the year by coming down slightly off the record high of $456,623 set last month. The average sales price for this month was $425,686 ending a stretch of five straight months of record setting prices. The sales price for January 2021 was still 14.1% higher than January of last year. With the astoundingly low levels of inventory continuing into 2021 it is hard to envision the average sales price dropping below the low $400,000 range this year. We are now entering the seventh straight month of year over year active inventory decline of 47% or more, which combined with the uptick in rolling 12 month sold inventory has dropped the current month’s supply of inventory for Rockingham & Strafford county down to 0.6 – meaning if no more listings were to come on then the entire market would sell out in just over two weeks’ time which is unprecedented. We are hoping that with the combination of the Spring Market and the continued distribution of the COVID vaccine easing potential seller’s fears we will see an uptick in inventory come on the market in the coming months.
