SEACOAST OVERVIEW

Inflation, inventory, interest rates. All three played important roles as 2022 unfolded in the 13 Sample Seacoast Towns—and beyond. The year began with interest rates near 3% for a 30-year fixed mortgage, just a slight uptick from the low point of 2.65% in January 2021. Bargain basement financing fueled high demand and multiple offer scenarios were commonplace across all price points. But by September 2022, rates topped 6%, and single-family sales dropped 13.9% through the end of the month. Rates flirted around the 7% mark at year’s end.

Meanwhile, inventory set records for monthly lows in each of the year’s first four months. March and April, in fact, recorded their fewest sales ever. Yet despite rising interest rates, median sale prices continued to climb. As affordability declined, days on market lengthened. Inevitably, June saw an-ever-so slight increase in inventory. A transition to a more balanced market was underway. Old-fashioned negotiation became more commonplace.

Against this background—and a declining stock market—multi-million-dollar sales soared to record levels. Despite all odds, monthly volume records for million-dollar-plus transactions were posted in every month except July and September including an all-time monthly mark of 26 total million-dollar sales in June. Topping the new volume records was a $25 million dollar December sale of an oceanfront property in a prime Straws Point, Rye location. The sale price is believed to be the largest for a single-family home ever in New Hampshire.

Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty found itself, as always, a significant player in this amazing market segment. We posted the top sales in New Castle, Portsmouth, and Rye Beach, including the year’s biggest non-waterfront sale in coastal New Hampshire at $6.4 million dollars. The company also had the second highest sale in Seabrook, Exeter, Dover, and New Durham. Million-dollar sales were so prevalent that only Lee, Northwood, and Somersworth did not record one. Fifteen of 30 towns had sales of more than $2 million dollars with Rye Beach, as usual, having the highest median sale price—$2.65 million.

Across the river in Maine, all six coastal communities from Kittery to Kennebunkport had sales of more than $2 million dollars with the largest coming in Kennebunkport at $6.9 million. By contrast, the Berwicks remained one of the area’s most affordable options with a median sale price of $438,000. Despite overall market volatility, Rochester, Dover, Hampton, and Portsmouth were the most active markets with well over 300 transactions in each. Greenland proved another hot spot with the area’s slimmest average days on market: 12.

In sum, sales were off 8% for the year in the 13 Sample Seacoast Towns while the median sale price rose 19% to $750,000 and the average sale price was even higher at $943,628, up 11%.

Amidst all the varied and complex market forces at play at year’s end, there was some good news. December month-over-month sales remained steady from a year ago, for the first time since June.

It seems 2023 has potential to be more challenging than what we have recently experienced. But, as the saying goes, under all is the land. And there’s no denying that the Seacoast is and always will be a very special part of the world to call home.

2022 at a glance