PORTSMOUTH — The Seacoast Board of Realtors say the spring Seacoast real estate market is shaping up to be the best in at least three years.
The board reported a record number of single-family and condominium pending sales in April in the 13 sample seacoast towns.
The 13 sample towns are Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, North Hampton, Newmarket, Portsmouth Rye, Seabrook and Stratham.
The 90 April pending single family sales are 18 more than the previous record set last May. There were 67 sales in the month, up 15.5 percent from last year. They were paced by 21 sales in the $400,000 to $700,000 price category, nine more than last year at this time. There were 37 sales in the category of less than $400,000.
Sales of single-family homes in the sample towns have increased through most of the first four recorded months of 2013. There were 59 in January, 55 in February, 63 in March and 67 in April.
The median sales price of a Seacoast single-family home was $369,800 up 21.7 percent from last year.
While the 35 pending condominium sales are also a new three-year record, condos again recorded a mixed bag of sales results. The average price of a condo was up 10.52 percent from last year at $210,000, but fell to its lowest level in three months in 2013. Closed sales also were off .06 percent from a year ago.
Inventory levels continue to shrink as demand increases, according to the Seacoast Board of Realtors. Available single-family units dropped 21.1 percent from a year ago, while condo inventory is off 17.2 percent from last year.