SPRING SEACOAST REAL ESTATE RALLY GATHERS STEAM

 PORTSMOUTH—May sales of single-family homes and condominiums in the 13 Sample Seacoast Towns registered robust gains. For the fourth straight month sales exceeded the previous month’s totals, setting several new records along the way. The news came in statistics just released by the Seacoast Board of REALTORS.

The 13 Sample Seacoast Towns are Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, North Hampton, Newmarket, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook and Stratham.

Total sales of single-family homes hit an annual monthly high for 2019. The 20 sales in the $700,000 to $1 million-dollar range was the highest since August 2018. In fact, it was the best May for that price point since 2016. Monthly totals were up by four sales from last year and 21.6% from April. For the third time in 2019, the median price exceeded $500,000, coming at $515,000.

For the first five months of the year, total single-family sales are up 11.7% and the median sale price is up 6.3% at $479,700.

May Condominium sales were up 6.5% from last year and 10.1% from last month. The 13 transactions in the $600,000 to $1 million-dollar price bracket set a new monthly mark for that price range. Those totals helped push the monthly median sale price to the highest May level in modern history–$379,900. It was also the highest monthly median price since March 2017 ($393,450.)

The rally helped put a dent in the current condominium annual sales deficit. For the first five months of 2019, sales are now off 12.2%, while the median sale price stood at $320,000, up 3.5% from last year.

“This is what you call an old-fashioned real estate rally,” said Kathy Ahlin, president of the Seacoast Board of REALTORS. “Anyway you look at it, our market really performed well in May. Consumer confidence in local real estate remains very strong.”