Lakes Region 5/6/07
The Luxury Home Market is abundant with lavish listings. In Belknap and Carroll counties the availability of an upper tier $600,000 or more property is up from April 2006.
The median list price of these properties however, has decreased $258,000. With a median list price of $1,190,000, seller's expectations are becoming more sensible resulting in asking prices that are more realistic.
In April of 2006, the most exclusive single-family residential property in the Lakes Region was listed in Moultonboro for $3,295,000. When the property closed on the 25th of that same month, it sold for a 17% less amount at $2,743,000. In contrast, the following April most extravagant property, was also listed in Moultonboro for $3,695,000 but was purchased by a real buyer for full asking price. This proves that sellers are serious and they are taking the hint given by buyers and the market trends.
Another contribution to the decrease in asking price is the amount of days on market. Luxury homes are sitting on the market for an average of 168 days compared to in April 2006 when they lasted 104 days before a closed transaction. Sellers realize they need to list their home at a price to sell, or it will sell others. Real Buyers for Luxury home sales are up 30% compared to last April. We are seeing that when properties are priced according to current market value the buyers are there, and they are buying.
"Interest rates are still low. Today's rate for a purchase mortgage on a 30 yr fixed is around 6.125% with no points. Rates do move up and down on average we could see a 1/8th increase over a few day period and the same goes for when the rates drop," said David Keslar of First Call Mortgage. This is great news to those who have the funds to support modest down payments. No longer are the days of creative financing. In April 2007, pending sales were way down a whopping 46% compared to last April. "With the fall of the sub-prime market and foreclosure rates at all time high, some mortgage companies have gone out of business while others have made it more difficult to obtain a mortgage with tighter guidelines. The state and federal governments are threatening to implement new restrictions, and guidelines that mortgage companies must follow. As all of this activity in the mortgage industry is rolled out we will see less consumers able to obtain a mortgage and this will reduce the number of potential home owners," said Kesler. Motivated sellers and low interest rates are screening the effect of the fallout of these rather significant statistics. April showers (or floods) also seemed to "dampen" home shopping.
So what is to happen in the near future? "It is very difficult to make a prediction, but if we look back on historical data, the market will turn up after we go through the turmoil we are in currently. We will see the mortgage industry correct itself and with that we will see an increase in mortgages," said Keslar. This is good news for all of us!
For Mortgage and lending information, contact Dave Keslar at dkeslar@ftmc.net. For current information on the upper tier market or all your real estate needs, contact Kim Carpenter at Curry REALTORS or email kim@curryrealtorsnh.com
Comments(0)