NH Market Trends September 2020

Home sales in Rockingham & Strafford County fell 5.7% from last month which is the smallest August to September decline we have seen since 2015. September’s 747 sales were 21% higher than September of 2019 and are the most sales in the month of September since the 764 in September of 2015. What makes this even more impressive is that it is happening in such a prolonged period of historically low inventory. Active inventory remained at the same level as last month increasing only one unit to 704 active units which is 56% below where we were at this time last year when there were 1,588 active units. The disparity between active listings and those under agreement held steady this month with 1,496 under agreement units which is still almost double the amount of active units when in a normal market that would be reversed. With the total under agreement units remaining above 1,400 for the fourth consecutive month we expect to continue to see strong sales numbers through the fall.

Average home sales price in Rockingham & Strafford County set an all-time high for the third time in the past four months coming in at $446,937 which was just slightly higher than last month’s $442,992 record. The average sales price for September was a 15% increase over the $388,095 figure for September 2019. As it has been for over a year now, active inventory continues to be the driving force behind the high sales prices. With much of the new inventory that comes on the market going under agreement within a few days the current month’s supply of inventory for Rockingham & Strafford County remains at its all-time low of 1.2 months. As we enter into the late fall/early winter we don’t expect inventory to rise much as this is a time of year that sees a drop in new listings come on the market in normal conditions but we now have the added uncertainty of the COVID pandemic as well.