New Hampshire home sales show slight gains in January

January single-family home sales in New Hampshire were a little peppier than they were a year ago, and the condo/townhouse market, while slow, indicated it could perk up slightly this month, in what are traditionally the slowest months of the year.

Median sales price for existing single-family homes in January was $502,500, up from $445,000 in January 2024, but down from December’s $510,000, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors monthly market report. Median means that half the homes that were closed on were sold for a price higher than that, and half lower.

The median sales price for a single-family home in Hillsborough County, which includes Manchester and Nashua, was $525,000, with 153 closed sales in January. In January 2024, the MSP was $470,000, with 163 closed sales.

Closed sales statewide were  down slightly – 0.9% – from 666 a year ago t0 660 this year, but pending sales were up 13.5%, from 661 a year ago to 750. Total single-family homes for sale was also up, 1,470 this year from 1,303, for a 12.8% rise.

The much smaller condo/townhouse market had a slower January than a year ago. The good news is that median price was lower – $427,500 in January, compared to $430,000 in January 2024. However, closed sales were down 3.4%, to 225 this year from 233 a year ago and pending sales were down 8.9%, with 275 this year from 302 last year. February may look better, though, with new January listings and overall property for sale both up from last year. There were 353 listings as the month closed, compared to 341 a year ago, a 3.5% increase. The overall number of condo/townhouses for sale was up 10.4%, 572 in January compared to 518 in January 2024.

In Hillsborough County, the condo/townhouse MSP was $360,000, with 56 closed sales in January. A year ago, it was $329,900, with 67 closed sales.

New Hampshire homebuyers still struggled with affordability in both markets in January. The affordability index for single-family homes was 59, which means that the state’s median income is 59% of what’s needed to pay the monthly costs for a median-priced single-family home, including monthly mortgage payment, insurance and property tax. A year ago, the affordability index was 68; in December it was 58.

Affordability in the condo/townhouse market wasn’t much better, at 69. It was 70 a year ago.

Available inventory, a key to a stable market with affordability prices, continued to be near all-time lows for both single-family homes and condo/townhouses. It was 1.5 for single-family homes and 1.8 for condo/townhouses. That means that if all the properties listed were sold at the current pace, with no new ones added, it would take about a month and a half to sell all the listed single-family homes, and a little less than two months to sell all the condo/townhouses. Industry experts like to see about a six-months’ inventory for a stable market.

One bright spot for buyers is that those who closed on a home in January paid less than 100% of list price. It was the fourth month in a row for single-family home buyers, who paid an average 98.8% of list price, the lowest they’d paid since January 2023, when it was 98.4%, but it had been below 100% eight times since then, including January 2025. In January 2024, buyers paid an average 99.4% of list price.

Condo/townhouse buyers, though, got their first break on list price since June 2020. They paid an average 99.9% of list price in January, the first time it has dipped below 100% in four and a half years.

Single-family homes also stayed on the market for an average of 42 days, the longest it’s been since February 2023, when it was also 42 days. In January, 2024, the average was 32 days.

Condo/townhouse properties stayed on the market an average 35 days, up from 32 a year ago.

Statewide, the highest single-family home MSP in January was in Rockingham County, which includes the Seacoast, at $690,000, with 131 closed sales, up from $555,000 in January 2024, with 151 closed sales. The lowest MSP in January, was in Coos County, at the state’s northern tip, at $312,000, with 21 sales. That’s up from $193,900 a year ago, when there were also 21 closed sales.

Nationally, U.S. existing-home sales advanced for the third straight month, up 2.2% for an annual rate of 4.24 million units, a 10-month high, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were up 9.3% compared to January 2024, driven largely by purchases of homes priced $500,000 and above, the NAR said. Month-over-month, sales rose in the South, Northeast, and the West but fell in the Midwest, with all four regions reporting year-over-year gains.

National housing inventor was 3.3 months’ available, with 1.15 million units heading into January, a 13.5% decrease from December, but a 16.2% increase from January 2024. Median sales price was $404,400 for existing single-family homes, a 6% rise from a year before.

“Housing supply remains down compared to pre-pandemic levels, and the limited number of homes on the market continues to push sales prices higher nationwide,” the NAR said.