Million Dollar Homes Spring Up in New Hampshire; Prices Drop on Other Properties
At least 10 homes in New Hampshire are up for sale for $5 million and above, reports The Boston Globe, though prices are dropping on some of the so-called “starter castles.”
For example, a home in Rye that went on the market for $8.7 million in July now is listed at $7.8 million. The price on another in Portsmouth has dropped from $12 million to $9.5 million. The goal is to entice New Hampshire mortgage applicants.
Other sellers are more patient.
“We’re staying where we are,” said Tom Falcon, who represents the owners of Farm Island in Tuftonboro, which offers 23 acres of wooded island, sandy covers, 3,800 feet of shorefront and a house at a high point on the land.
The property has been on the market since November 2005 and is listed at $5.9 million.
Susan Bradley Realty of Laconia has two of the 10 listings on the top 10.
“The high end of the market has been very strong,” Bradley said.
Russ Thibeault, a New Hampshire housing market analyst and president of Applied Economics Research in Laconia, said lakefront or ocean properties still are a strong segment of the real estate market despite a dip in sales in the mid-$300,000 range.
The “chopped up” aspect of Lake Winnipesaukee means smaller lots, which has kept prices from rising about $12 million as they have in other states, he said. Meanwhile, the price of an average single-family home is dropping as the number of sales continues its downward trend and mortgage loan applicants gain leverage.
Home sales are down about 11 percent from a year ago, according to the Northern New England Real Estate Network.
The average selling price has decreased 3 percent in the last month to $291,700, and has dropped 7 percent from what it was a year ago. Homes also are taking longer to sell, standing at an average of 111 days compared to 85 days a year ago.
“It’s a market that’s correcting itself,” said Kathy Corey Fox, president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. “We were spoiled in 2004 and 2005 with double digit increases, but that’s abnormal.”