Southern New Hampshire Housing Market Poised For Growth
The Manchester-Nashua (N.H.) metropolitan area is the eighth best to invest in a home purchase nationally, and will experience 35 percent appreciation over the next five years, according to Business 2.0 magazine.
New Hampshire’s financial appeal is readily apparent: It has no income or sales tax, and it’s within commuting distance of Boston, one of the most expensive markets in the country, the Manchester Union-Leader reports.
“Unlike the destruction wrought by the tech crash of several years ago, the current housing market downturn won’t take a huge bite out of the value of U.S. residential real estate assets, which is estimated at more than $20 trillion,” Business 2.0 magazine said in a press release.
Unlike many housing markets around the country that are over-inflated and looking at price drops, economists are bullish on the southern New Hampshire market.
Manchester, a former textile mill town, is the largest city in northern New England, and neighboring Nashua, which twice has won honors as Money magazine’s “best place to live” in America, shares a border with Massachusetts, which has been losing population since 2004.
It has been widely speculated that the Massachusetts home loan market may see steady declines this year and next as people know they can move out of Boston, get more house for their dollar, and have a great quality of life.
Many believe now is a good time to buy, because appreciation rates started dropping in New England several quarters earlier than in the rest of the country.
As home mortgage rates hold steady, prices are expected to burst upward again by mid-2007, according to the report. Median prices in the Manchester-Nashua corridor will rise from $226,000 in 2006 to $305,000 in 2011, the magazine forecasts.
The magazine also sounded a note of caution regarding the strength of the southern New Hampshire market.
“It remains to be seen whether Southern New Hampshire can buck a much larger demographic trend: people leaving New England in droves to seek milder, sunnier climates,” the report said.