Sales Down 0.3% and Prices Up by 14.9%
The amount of home sales in 2021 was down by 43 sales, 0.3% from 2020. Prices, true to national trends, increased by 14.9%.
There were 14,946 sales in 2021 compared to 14,989 in 2020. Prices are up by nearly $60K now to $456,237 from $397,014. This includes all singles, condos, and multi-families.
Broken down, single-family sales are the only category that decreased in 2021, down by 4%. Prices for singles increased 16%. Condos increased by 5.4% for sales and by 11.8% for prices. Multis increased by 26.6% and by 23.5% for sales and prices respectively.
2019–2021 Home Sales by Month
Home sales were essentially up over the first half of the year and down the rest. The drop in early 2020 sales due to low winter inventory and then the pandemic made it easier for 2021 to outperform in that time frame. The post shut down race for buyers to secure homes in the later part of 2020 made it tough for 2021 to keep up and ultimately it didn’t happen.
Home Prices by Month
Prices on the other hand have very clearly exhibited strong increases over the past few years, but most notably in 2021 with the largest increase in May. If you scroll down to the Listings portion of this report, you’ll see that there was a dip right around the same time. Classic case of low supply (diminished listings) and high demand (increase in sales) causing prices to be driven up.
Looking Back
Sold Homes 2019 – 2021 by County
For this portion of the report, we are examining the Lakes Region (Belknap County) and the three counties that make up Southern New Hampshire: Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Cheshire; and we are focusing on three property types: single-family homes, condominiums, and multi-family homes.
Belknap and Rockingham County sales decreased by 6% and 2% respectively. Sales increased for Cheshire and Hillsborough Counties by 7.3% and 1.4%. Last year the opposite happened.
Belknap County decreased to 1,491 sales from 1,588 in 2020, Rockingham to 5,571 from 5,693. Cheshire increased to 1,227 from 1,143 and Hillsborough is up to 6,657 from 6,565.
Average Selling Price of Homes 2019-2021 by County
All four counties increased in price in 2021. Belknap increased by 12.5% to $474,872 from $422,055. Cheshire moved 15.8% from $273,641 to $316,801. Hillsborough rose 17.8% to $416,425 from $353,503. Rockingham came in at $529,533 from $464,976, a 14% increase.
Homes Listed – All of NH
New listings in 2021 followed a less treacherous trendline in 2021 than 2020 but still couldn’t quite keep up with pre-pandemic markets. The slight 3.5% decrease in the state of New Hampshire brought listings to 27,131 from 28,127 the previous year.
In the chart below, you can see how 2022 has kicked off with even fewer homes listed which goes to show it’s going to be another tough winter for buyers.
Homes Pending (contract accepted) – All of NH
Again, right when the pandemic hit, the number of homes that went pending decreased significantly for a few months until it ended up rising above 2019 in August. In January 2021, that number dropped beneath the previous years and remained lower for the year, with the exception of the drop in 2020. There was a 6% drop year over year with 26,354 homes that went pending from 28,049.
2022 Outlook
It’s easy to see why inventory is so tight. In 2021 there were 27,131 homes listed for all of NH and 26,354 homes marked pending with accepted contracts. Supply is being consumed at almost the same rate that it’s being made available, which we refer to as the Pac-Man effect.
Anthony predicted that 2021 would have the largest year in real estate since 2005 despite everyone else’s fear that the pandemic would cause a crash like 2008, and fortunately, they were wrong. 2021 was a strong year, not only rebounding from the shutdown in 2020, but it kept pace despite safety mandates and prices rising at incredible rates.
Mortgage rates helped buyers balance out the leaping prices as they fell to historic lows and kept borrowing as inexpensive as possible. Rates in late 2021 and throughout 2022 are expected to rise along with prices- so now is irrefutably better to buy than later. Fortunately, loan limits were once again increased for 2022 which will make obtaining high valued loans more accessible for buyers.
We did expect to see an uptick in sales in Belknap County, but that decreased a bit from last year. One would reason that as soon as the shutdown hit in 2020 people went directly to the North to ensure a change of scenery for themselves if a shutdown ever happened again. That rush was hard for 2021 to keep up with.
2022 is predicted to perform similar to 2021 with steady sales and rising prices.
Data provided by NEREN then compared to the prior year.