There were 993 residential homes on the market in the communities in this Lakes Region of NH market report as of March 1, 2010 or about 15.5 months worth of inventory. The average asking price stands at $583,496 and a median of $289,900. This compares to 941 homes last March at an average asking price of $547,575 and a median price of $299,000.

It won’t be long and we’ll be back into the spring buying season. Ah, the smell of flowers blooming, the sound of birds chirping, a warm spring breeze, and the rustling of buyers as they come out of their winter hibernation. Well, we can hope, can’t we? If you are buying a home, and particularly if you are a first time buyer, here are a few tips to keep in mind as you look for that perfect place to call home:

1. Educate yourself, particularly if you are a first time buyer. Take a first time home buyer class or read some books on home buying and ownership (there are plenty available at Borders or Amazon.com). A little knowledge will go a long way in giving you some confidence about the home ownership adventure you are about to start.

2. Meet with a local lender to find out if and how much of a mortgage you qualify for. There is no sense in looking at $300,000 homes if you can only qualify for a $200,000 home. And, you’ll also need a letter from the bank to (more…)

We are through an almost snowless January and half of February with but  4-6”  or so and I’m thinking this is pretty great as I haven’t had to plow my driveway much and I haven’t sanded it once! However, the lack of snow in the Lakes Region of NH definitely has a negative impact on the local businesses and is certainly not good for the local economy. Although January residential home sales weren’t really stellar we had an avalanche of activity compared to last year. You may recall, last February I reported that January of ’09 had to be just about the bottom of the market with only 28 sales with an average of sales price of $217,283. It was pretty bad! Well, last month we had 44 residential sales at an average price of $377,781. That may not sound like much, but that is a 57% increase in sales over January 2009.

More importantly, on a rolling 12 month basis we posted 736 residential home sales for the period ending 1/31/10 compared to 669 sales for the 12 month period ending 1/31/09. That is a 10% increase in sales over a 12 month period which might not be as exciting as a blizzard to Gunstock  Ski Area but it certainly is better than the downward trend we had been experiencing. The average sales price is down from the $336,088 posted in 2009 to $298,879 as of 1/31/2010 but that is to be expected with the large number of low end sales and foreclosures.

Again, half the sales in January 2010 were below the $200,000 mark which seems to be the case just about (more…)

It is time to take another look around the MLS system to see what kind of potential deals can be found in the Lakes Region of NH. There is certainly enough inventory out there to choose from. Some of the older homes on the market are offered at prices that would seem to make them pretty good values particularly if you can fix them up yourself. There are always some repairs, system upgrades, or cosmetic issues to deal with in older homes but many of these homes are well built and have charm and character that is difficult to replicate in newer construction..

For example, If you’d like a stately, turn of the century home on one of the nicest streets in Laconia, the property at 229 Pleasant Street just might satisfy the “This Old House” urge in you. This home has 3,878 square feet of living space (more…)

February is here and the days may be getting longer but the home inventory in the Lakes Region of NH is getting larger. We edged up from 869 homes on the market last month to 926 homes listed as of February 1 with a current average asking price of $590,214. That is on par with last February when the inventory stood at 923 homes, but the average price was lower at $548,470. Currently, we have a 15 month supply of homes on the market based on sales numbers over the past year. That is still about three times what is considered a normal or good inventory level.

As reported previously, the average sales price of homes is definitely down in the Lakes Region as well as the rest of the country. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to break the numbers down a little further and see how the (more…)

My favorite Lakes Region Real Estate Market Report of the whole year is definitely the year end waterfront report. It is exciting to see what homes sold, where they were located, and how much they went for. I focus only on the sales on Winnipesaukee and Winnisquam because they have the bulk of the sales and therefore they are a pretty good barometer as to how well the market is doing. Waterfront sales are a big part of the local real estate market as well as being important to our local economy is so many ways. So how did 2009 stack up to years past?

Waterfront sales on Lake Winnipesaukee started pretty slow in 2009. There were only 30 waterfront sales (including island properties) in the first half of 2009 in the communities that border the big lake (Alton, Center Harbor, Gilford, Laconia, Meredith, Moultonborough, Tuftonboro, and Wolfeboro.) Sales did pick up steam in the second half of the year and we posted 46 more for a (more…)

Lakes Region Real Estate Year End Review

It is not only the end of the year, it is the end of the decade, so it is the perfect time to review home sales in the Lakes Region of NH!  First, a quick look at December. There were 68 residential home sales this past December compared to just 58 in December 2008. That’s a 17% increase which should make us all feel pretty good! However, the average sales price was down from $373,130 in December 2008 to $290,008 in December of 2009. That’s a huge decline, however, comparing the same month in different years doesn’t generally mean a whole lot. Statistics looking back over a year or a decade are much more meaningful but even they can be somewhat misleading.

There were 720 residential sales in the communities in this report for the calendar year 2009. That’s about a 6¾% (more…)

A Bold New Decade In Real Estate 

The New Year started off with 869 homes listed for sale in the towns in this Lakes Region of NH Real Estate Market Report. That’s a big drop from the 1044 homes on the market as of December 1, 2009 and slightly lower than the 900 homes on the market January 1, 2009. There always seems to be a lot of homes that expire on December 31 of each year. Unfortunately, they slowly work their way back onto the market. The average asking price for homes in the area has actually gone up from $527,122 last January 1 to $613,371 on this New Year’s Day. The increase in the average asking price is most likely a result of more high priced homes on the market rather than any surge in asking prices although there are still many, many overpriced homes especially on the upper end of the market. The 869 homes currently on the market represent about a 14.5 month’s worth of inventory.

As we enter a new decade, it is clear that the real estate marketing world will undergo some dramatic changes. What can we look forward to? Obviously, the computer and the internet have completely revolutionized the way people buy homes, and for that matter, everything else. Having a buyer walk into your office looking for help in finding a home is generally viewed as cause for great celebration by the agency’s managing broker. It just doesn’t happen much anymore. Today’s elusive buyers do their shopping on the internet. Once they have zeroed in on what they like and have compiled a list of homes that they would like to see they might give an agent a call or more likely send an email. But this is nothing new, as this has been the standard operating procedure for a while now.

What is new is the huge role that technology will play in marketing homes and how it will evolve in order to reach and connect with technology savvy buyers. No longer will it effective to market a property by using the old MLS system and feeds to agency websites offering 6-12 fuzzy photographs and even fuzzier property descriptions. Sellers deserve and will expect a much broader and more professional marketing campaign to reach out to potential buyers. One big evolution in marketing is the use of social networking sites like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter to reach and interact with potential buyers and sellers. The use of video and podcasts promoting properties on websites, blogs, and sites like You Tube will be much more prevalent. People are visual. Information about real estate (beyond the routine and often mundane property data found on the MLS listing sheet) will be found on real estate blogs.

Buyers want information and they want it now, no matter where they are. Today’s smart phones are more like mini-computers than phones and like every other electronic device they will only improve and become more powerful. Not only can you surf the web and email from your smart phone, now you can see all the current real estate listings on it. You can see all the homes in any given area, get property information, and see photos along with a Google Map of where you and the houses are located (to get the application on your phone just Text: RRG To:87778). This application is perfect for anybody just driving around looking for homes! There is no doubt in my mind that real estate applications will soon be available on in-car GPS devices like Garmin and Tom-Tom.

The use of virtual tours comes as standard equipment in just about every agency’s marketing program, but did you know that “virtual home staging” is a reality right now. Everyone knows that empty homes are a little more difficult to sell just because they are…well, they are empty and many people just can’t envision where the sofa and TV go. Beautiful virtual furniture can be placed in empty rooms to create that appealing lived-in look at a fraction of the cost. I can’t wait for the virtual home make over program that can show buyers what can be done with that fixer-upper that needs the wall paper taken down and a wall removed. How far into the future will it be before we see true 3-D virtual home tours? Perhaps not far…

But through all this technological advancement, the real estate business will always remain a true “people business”. It will be the brokers and agents that will institute and utilize these advancements to better serve the buying and selling public. And despite the evasive nature or the desire on the part of many buyers to remain virtually invisible to the last possible moment, ultimately it will come down to agent relationships, personal interaction, and good old fashion negotiations to make a deal happen!

Winnipesaukee Waterfront Sales Report December 2009

After a very busy November on the the big lake we finished off the year with 3 more waterfront sales with a volume total of a little over $4 million.  The largest sale was in Meredith on Wagon Wheel Trail for $2.99 million, one in Moultonborough on Homestead Lane for $610,000, and one down in Alton on Farmington Rd for $500,000.

Click on the picture for details of these sold properties.

 As always, you can see the latest waterfront listings on Lake Winnipesaukee by clicking here or you can get information on and search for waterfront on any lake in the Lakes Region of NH by clicking here!

Lakes Region Home is you best source for exploring all the communities and homes in the beautiful Lakes Region of NH and Lakes Region Real Estate News will ensure that you are armed with all the latest market trends and data!

Real Estate New Year’s Resolutions

Well, 2009 is winding to a close and it is natural to think of New Year’s resolutions and what the New Year might bring. Most people often resolve to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, quit drinking, eat right, and spend more time with their family. I am sure there are two or three people that have actually succeeded with these. I think they live somewhere in Indiana. I was trying to come up with some New Year’s resolutions that would apply to real estate and that would be extremely helpful if you are selling or buying a home. There were undoubtedly many, many times in 2009 when buyers and sellers just couldn’t quite see eye to eye in order to make a deal on a property and now in retrospect wish they had. Ah, the wondrous power of 20/20 hindsight!

As real estate agents, we know that deals fall apart all the time over things that seem miniscule when viewed in terms of the overall goals of both the buyer and seller. It drives REALTORS® nuts as we know more often than not that just a few months down the road sellers will be asking “What about that guy that made the offer before, is he still looking around?” Many times we are able to convince the buyer or seller that they should just swallow their pride and accept the deal on the table and move on with their lives. But just as many times the parties get frustrated, dig their heels in, refusing (in their mind) to be taken advantage of, and kill a deal that is within a sliver of being done. So with that thought, here are a few resolutions for those that had “near-deals” in 2009:

Resolutions for the Frustrated Seller to be used the next time he receives an offer:
1. I will recognize that not all buyers are only interested in stealing my home. Many of these creatures are actually human.
2. In the spirit of true negotiations, I will try to work with even a low ball offer and make a reasonable counter offer (no, not $500 off the asking price!)
3. I will consider the fact that maybe, just possibly, my house is not worth what my neighbor’s house is nor regrettably what it was worth what I paid for it two years ago. I will try to understand that the buyer is not trying to screw me.
4. I will not be upset about the fact that the buyer’s home inspection has revealed some defects that need to be corrected or that the buyer expects some quid pro quo for it.
5. I resolve not to take anything said or done by the buyer personally.
6. I resolve to smile more and enjoy the process, it can be fun.

Resolutions for the Homeless Home Buyer
1. I will try to comprehend that there is no such thing as the absolute perfect house and that most homes will need some work and maintenance. Don’t expect the seller to pay for your upkeep for the next 10 years.
2. I will understand that contrary to what I may have read or have been told, not every home on the market in the Lakes Region of NH is a fire sale.
3. I will understand that there is a good possibility that a low ball offer could work against me in buying the home I really want.
4. I will understand that sometimes the seller has both an emotional investment in and an attachment to his home that sometimes causes irrational behavior.
5. I resolve not to take anything said or done by the seller personally.
6. I resolve to smile more and enjoy the process, it can be fun.

So what about real estate predictions for 2010? There has been so much doom and gloom for the past three to four years and the market has been so awful that I refuse to believe anything other than we are going to have a great year. Markets are cyclical and my bet is we have turned the corner. Positive signs abound. The biggest change may be the more positive attitude of the buying public. I don’t expect it to be a banner year, but certainly stronger than the last two barring any further man-made economic disasters on the national level.

And as far as my New Year’s resolutions are concerned, I’m just going with #6 above. Happy New Year!

The Largest Winnipesaukee Waterfront Sale in History…

The month of November hasn’t been particularly robust for the housing market in the Lakes Region over the past few years. Let’s face it, the weather turns cold, it is dreary, the tourists are gone, and people start to think a lot more about the holidays than houses. November is certainly not the “prime time” for selling a home. But the buyers that are out looking are definitely serious.

We had a total of 72 residential home transactions last month which I think is fantastic! Last November only 38 homes sold and in November of 2007 there were only 56 sold. The 72 sales registered last month were still well below totals posted in November, 2003 at 104 homes and 2004 at 108 but it sure feels like we have bounced off the bottom just a little for a change!

It is no surprise that almost 60% of the sales were below $200,000 compared to 50% last November indicating again that the first time buyer and bank owned properties are the main game in town. But, remember, I said the serious buyers are out this time of year? There were four sales in November over $1 million, but the big news is that we had the highest price waterfront sale in history on Lake Winnipesaukee at a record $7.8 million! That is one SERIOUS buyer!

This property is located on Wagon Wheel Trail in Meredith and is a spectacular 8.3 acre waterfront lot with 1,500 feet of frontage, 259 feet of beach, and has awesome sunset views to the West and South. The property is surrounded on three sides by beautiful stone and wrought iron walls and has a magnificent stone boat house that cost in excess of $1 million to build. There is an older 2 bedroom ranch style home on the property that will undoubtedly make way for something just a tad larger and more fitting for this beautiful spot. The property was originally listed for $11 million and was on the market for 399 days. Roche Realty Group not only had the listing but brought the buyers!

Both the buyers and the sellers were extremely happy with the negotiated outcome and the seller has already purchased another waterfront estate just a few doors down on Wagon Wheel Trail demonstrating his faith in the Lakes Region Real Estate Market. Who says Christmas never comes early? The holidays this year will be a just a little bit brighter for all those parties involved in this transaction!