 January 10, 2023
The New Hampshire year-end housing market reportAffordability and availability remained the watchwords in the New Hampshire residential housing market, as 2022 came to a close with relatively few homes for sale and the largest year-end median price in the state's history. The median price for the year was $440,000, an 11 percent increase over the year-end 2021 median price, marking the third consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases. That includes a $425,000 median price in December, a 6 percent hike over December 2021. And despite a slight uptick in inventory, the number of homes on the market in New Hampshire continues to create a decidedly sellers' market. There were 1,542 single family residential housing units for sale at the end of December, amounting to 1.3 months' supply of inventory. A balanced market is considered five to seven months, numbers not seen in the state since 2015. As a result, affordability remains at historically low levels. December showed a 73 on the affordability index, which means the state's median household income is just 73 percent of what is necessary to qualify for the median-priced home under prevailing interest rates. That's a 28 percent drop in affordability from a year ago. By comparison, the index was over 150 as recently as 2017 and has been over 200 within the last 10 years. December's 1,029 closed sales, meanwhile, marked a 28 percent decrease from December 2021, and the 14,456 residential home sales in all of 2022 meant a 17 percent decline from year-end 2021. It marked the 18th consecutive month that sales have decreased compared to a year prior. |
