New Hampshire and Maine Homes and Condos

                     Portsmouth NH - A Sunday Morning View

Portsmouth New Hampshire is such an awesome town to live in, and to visit as well.  We have all kinds of things to do here for everyone and we're a beautiful port city full of history.  Portsmouth was settled in 1623 after all, so it would be natural to have living history all around us here, and we do.

Our neighborhoods are full of beautiful homes, both old and new, many with wonderful welcoming porches, and sidewalks to take you wherever you want.  Beautiful old trees line many of our streets, friendly greetings from residents, bright and colorful gardens everywhere you look - a fabulous place to call home.

This morning I decided to go for an early morning walk.  The air was crisp and dry, the sun was shining, and walking daily is something I'd been telling myself to start doing for a long time now.  Today, I did just that.         

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Coastal New Hampshire Real Estate Market Update - January 2008 through August 2008

Real Estate Markets are really very local in nature, contrary to what all the media would have you believe.  Statewide market information isn't local enough, and really even looking at various markets by county isn't breaking the real estate market updates down enough.  Counties can, and do, vary greatly, and counties here in New Hampshire vary enormously.

The Seacoast area of NH is covered by parts of two counties - Rockingham County, which has all the towns right along the immediate coastline, and Strafford County, which is inland a bit from the immediate coastline.  The Greater Seacoast areas include a number of towns - Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, Hampton, Seabrook, North Hampton, Hampton Falls, Exeter, Stratham, Greenland, Newington, Newmarket, Dover, Durham, Brentwood, and towns in the southern tip of Maine - Kittery, Eliot, York, Ogunguit, South Berwick.  Even these towns vary greatly from each other when it comes to market activity, and how active, or not, the real estate market is.

Read also - "New Hampshire Seacoast Area Towns"

For the purpose of this Coastal Seacoast New Hampshire Real Estate Market Update, the towns included are those in the immediate Seacoast area - Portsmouth, New Castle, Rye, Hampton, North Hampton, Stratham, Hampton Falls, Exeter, Greenland, and Newington.  Real estate market information used for this report is provided from NNEREN, Northern New England Real Estate Network, the Multiple Listing System (MLS) that services all of New Hampshire and parts of Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.

January through August 2008 Real Estate (MLS) Activity:

Total homes for sale                                                         594 homes
Total new homes listings Jan - Aug                                   904 homes
Total homes sold Jan - Aug                                              373 homes
Total homes sale pending Jan - Aug                                 391 homes
Total homes that didn't sell Jan - Aug                               718 homes

Average selling price of homes sold Jan - Aug                    $472,753
Average days on the market for sold homes Jan - Aug       147 days
Average list price to sold price ratio                                    94.34%

Average listing price of homes currently for sale                 $638,216
Average days on market of homes currently for sale          160 days
Average listing price of homes currently sale pending         $504,922
Average days on market of homes sale pending                 140 days

Read also - "Seacoast Area Real Estate Market Reports"

So, now that you have all these numbers in front of you regarding the NH Seacoast real estate market, what do they all mean?                     

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Rye New Hampshire - Historic Bridge For Sale!

Yep, you read that correctly - we do, in fact, have a bridge for sale right here in Rye New Hampshire.  And it's also one that's eligible for being listed in the National Register of Historic Places due to the significance of its engineering.

Why is this historic bridge being offered up for auction?  Federal law stipulates that all historic bridges must be offered to the public before any demolition can take place.

Where is this bridge for sale?  If you know where Odiorne Point State Park is on the Atlantic Ocean in Rye NH, you're almost right on it.  Look for the Odiorne Point boat launch, and it's right there.

Details of the bridge:

• 22 feet long

• 6 feet by 16 feet floor structure

• 4.3 foot sidewalk on one side, 3.5 foot sidewalk on the other side

If you're seriously interested in owning this bridge, you must submit a written bid by July 16, 2008.  These bids will be opened on the 17th of July.

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Looking to buy a home or condo in the Portsmouth NH area? 

Make sure you start off by getting a written pre-approval letter from a professional lender.

Now that you've found the perfect Portsmouth home or condo, it's time to make your mortgage application.  Here's what you'll need to get together for your lender so you can provide him or her complete information to get your home mortgage in the works:

--  one month's worth of pay check stubs;
--  your last 2 years' of your W-2 forms;
--  your most recent 2-3 months' of bank account statements;
--  account numbers and contact information on all credit cards and outstanding loans;
--  child support and/or alimony payments, if applicable;
--  your last 2 years' of tax returns, if you're self-employed.

This information is necessary to process your request for a Portsmouth NH home or condo mortgage, so the more documentation you can provide up front, the smoother and more stress-free your real estate purchase and mortgage process will be.  If your lender requests additional informtation, do your best to get that information back as quickly as you can.  Keep the process flowing and don't cause unnecessary delays by not providing what's asked for or by challenging your lender's need for certain information or documentation.

Here are some other tips to pay heed to while you're in the homebuying process:

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