Price well, sell soon...

Unfortunately, the month of April won't be remembered as the month that things turned around in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire as far as home sales go. The sales that closed in April were a result of buyer activity in February and March so it isn't very surprising that the numbers came in so low. Most REALTORS in the Lakes Region will attest to the fact that there really wasn't much going on in those two months other than shoveling and cleaning up after seemingly endless snow storms. April's total of 46 residential sales in the twelve towns listed was 30% lower than April of 2007. For the first 4 months of the year we stand at 172 sales which is about 25% of the total for the same period last year in these same towns. The average sales price has also dropped for the same period from $402,478 in 2007 to $373,502 so far this year or about a 7% drop from last year.
 
There were four homes that sold this month exceeding the $1 million mark and the Town of Moultonborough gets the top honors with total of 7 sales with an average sales price of $1.029 million. The highest sale was for a $3.1 million to be built, 4,300 square foot, 13 room, 5 bedroom waterfront home on Eagle Shore Road in Moultonborough. 
 
Reports from across the country show that average sales prices for homes are down. We may still see some downward movement on pricing on some properties here in the Lakes Region, but for the most part I believe that home prices have pretty well bottomed out.  It seems like housing might be the best bargain out there right now given the fact that just about everything else seems to be going up in price. The real encouraging thing that I have noticed is there have been a lot more homes going under contract over the past few weeks. Our office had four properties that came on the market recently that were priced well and showed real value to potential buyers. Those four listings were on the market for 5, 18, 20, and 37 days!  That proves that buyers are out there and they are paying attention. It also proves that if a homeowner is willing and able to offer his home at the correct price point it can sell pretty quickly!  What a great concept...