Condominium Sales Surge in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region!

As we start entering October’s bright fall colors, I thought I’d take a look at the residential condominium market in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region and see how it compares to the statewide averages year to date. 

As we expected, we experienced a strong market with 261 sales of residential condominium homes year to date, with only 3 days remaining in September. The unit sales were just a bit lower than 2022’s sales from 1/1/2022-9/30/2022 totaling 294 sales. 

I pulled all the results for condominiums in the 25 towns and cities in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region and compared 2023 with 2022. I then pulled all of the condominium sales throughout all of New Hampshire for both years using the same comparison. Here are the results:

Condominiums sold in the Lakes Region

1/1/2022-9/30/2022: 294 sales, median days on the market 6, median sales price $340,000, lowest $50,000, highest $1,350,000, total $122,837,161.

1/1/2023-9/27/2023: 261 sales, median days on the market 9, median sales price $405,000, lowest $51,000, highest $1,715,000, total $123,437,640.

Condominiums sold in all of New Hampshire

1/1/2022-9/30/2022: 3441 sales, median days on the market 6, median sales price $342,000, lowest $37,500, highest $2,850,000, total $1,334,206,054.

1/1/2023-9/27/2023: 2688 sales, median days on the market 6, median sales price $375,000, lowest $51,000, highest $2,900,000, total $1,181,726,683.

In the Lakes Region for condos, the median sales price increased 19.2% over the previous year, going from $340,000 in 2022 to $405,000 in 2023, and total sales volume increased even with a lower number of unit sales. 

The lowest price was at 554 Endicott Street N. at Pine Hollows in Laconia at $51,000, a mile away from Weirs Beach. This was a very basic 1 bedroom seasonal cottage with only 271 square feet. 

The highest price was at 14 Lake Shore Drive in Moultonborough on Lake Winnipesaukee at $1,715,000. This condominium home was built in 2021 as part of a new small cluster condominium association with 158′ of association shorefront with two assigned boat slips. This was a resale where the owners made improvements to the original new construction. The condominium included 2,696 square feet of living space with 4 bedrooms and 5 baths. The home, however, was set back from the other detached condominiums along the shore. This lofty price for a condominium surely hits the radar when you consider that in 2017, there were 8 waterfront single-family homes on Govenor’s Island that sold from $1,100,000 to $4,350,000 with the average sales price at $1,941,142 back then only 7 years ago. Can you imagine how much everything has appreciated? You could have bought a nice waterfront home on Governor’s Island in 2017 compared to a condominium in Moultonborough in 2023. 

When you compare the statewide condo sales, you could see that sales were down from 3,441 units in 2022, compared to 2,688 sales in 2023, a 21.9% decrease. The median sales price, however, increased 9.6% from $342,000 in 2022 to $375,000 in 2023. Total sales volume decreased by 11.4%. 

You can see from above that the Lakes Region showed much higher increases than the statewide averages. It’s no wonder when you drive around and see some of the new developments and desirable resale product we have on area lakes. Also, it’s much more affordable than waterfront homes, so there’s a bigger demographic that can afford them. 

For statewide activity, the lowest sales price again was 554 Endicott Street N. at $51,000. The highest sales price was 300 Court Street in Portsmouth at $2,900,00. This was a luxury condominium in the heart of downtown. It included 3 bedrooms and 4 baths with 3,260 square feet of living space. The building was originally built in 1857. It’s amazing to see prices for a 166-year-old building similar to what you would pay to be living at Beacon Hill in Boston. Flashback and imagine the local resident in the historic harbor of Portsmouth back in 1857 talking about real estate values over a mug of beer at the local tavern… “Can you imagine that at some time in the future, a small section of that building will sell for $2,900,000, and the new owners will call it a condominium?”