{"id":2018,"date":"2011-09-16T15:55:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T19:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2011-09-21T17:46:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T21:46:02","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-the-vacation-home-market-a-realtors-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2011\/09\/16\/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-vacation-home-market-a-realtors-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need To Know About The Vacation Home Market: A Realtor’s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact\/NHPR<\/p>

Long-time Moultonborough Realtor Jim Mardis sums up the state of the second home market for StateImpact<\/p><\/div>\n

StateImpact has been on the road this week, as part of our month-long series on the state’s vacation home economy. We headed to the mother of all New Hampshire tourism communities: the town of Moultonborough, along Lake Winnipesaukee. \u00a0You may remember from our previous coverage that 61 percent of the homes in the area are second homes<\/a>. \u00a0Although it’s not the most heavily-saturated tourist town, Moultonborough does claim the highest raw numbers for vacation homes: 2,991.<\/p>\n

As part of our Lakes Region meanderings, StateImpact popped by the Moultonborough office of Realtor Jim Mardis. \u00a0He’s President of Century 21 Lakes Region Realty. \u00a0Mardis has 34 years of experience selling primary and second homes in the area. \u00a0And he does a booming business in the area, employing 22 agents. \u00a0So we decided to find out what the town’s post-recessionary housing market looks like, from the realtor’s perspective.\"\"
\n<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>How would you describe the difference in pricing between the second home that you would buy along the lake versus just moving into town and buying…a [primary] house in Moultonborough?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>That\u2019s a loaded question. \u00a0There\u2019s a very wide range in pricing. \u00a0If you\u2019re looking to purchase…I would say $200,000 for the residential markets might be a good average for the Moultonborough-Meredith area. Water access would be a subdivision that would be…beside a lake, either on the big lake, Winnipesaukee, or a smaller lake. \u00a0There would be a…shared beach, and you would have homes that would have deeded rights to those beaches. \u00a0Because it\u2019s shared frontage, those prices are…more affordable. \u00a0And you can get four season homes on nice lots starting, even in the water access market, $175,000 to $225,000, on up to $300,000, $350,000.<\/p>\n

When you get into the waterfront market, there\u2019s a huge variation…Does it have a 20 mile view, or does it have a view looking across a very, very narrow bay? \u00a0Typically the longer the view, the better the view. \u00a0Whether there\u2019s a sand beach or not a sand beach. \u00a0Sand beaches are preferred. They\u2019re not typical on the lake, so they\u2019re rather unique. \u00a0So a parcel that might have a sand beach, that might have a long view, that might have a southerly exposure…those tend to gather a higher sum as well. \u00a0And there\u2019s some parcels of land where the raw value of the land might be a million dollars.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Given the housing crash, how, if at all, have your sales of these second homes…been affected?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>There\u2019s no doubt that we\u2019ve been affected by this. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen a couple of these before. \u00a0This one seems to have longer legs than the previous ones. \u00a0And about one thing that I\u2019ve noticed, and I think it\u2019s unique about this market, and probably some other second home markets as well, is there seems to be a resilience on the part of owners, whereby they\u2019ve held their prices.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact\/NHPR<\/p>

There are big variations in housing costs across the Lakes Region. A lot of that diversity arises from proximity to water and (of course) the view<\/p><\/div>\n

Prices have come down, but we don\u2019t see the level of foreclosures that you\u2019d see in primary markets in Florida, in the Southwest. Prices, I think, are still coming down slightly…It\u2019s very, very difficult to say what our national economy\u2019s going to do. \u00a0But I do think, though, that we see a big difference in the way people view investments here in the Lakes Region. Back in the mid-\u201880\u2019s, for example, we had a lot of people purchasing strictly for the investment value. Well, for two reasons. They would buy because they thought it was a tremendous investment that they could quickly turn around the property, sell the property, make a profit on the property very, very quickly. \u00a0They would also buy it because there would be the personal use and enjoyment factor involved. But a lot of people that are buying now are buying because there\u2019s the opportunity to enjoy this lifestyle with their family.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Where have you seen…the biggest difficulties in making sales?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Mostly, it\u2019s been in the primary markets. \u00a0The residential markets. \u00a0Those homes seem to have been more affected. \u00a0That is, they stay on the market for a longer period of time. \u00a0They have been forced to higher levels of price reductions. \u00a0But interestingly, this year, in particular, the upper end, at least for the first six months, really went well. \u00a0We saw a number of sales in the $2, 3 and 4 million range. \u00a0So the upper-end markets seem to be quite strong, actually.<\/p>\n

I think that\u2026we\u2019ll find that the next couple years will be more of a stabilizing period than anything else, is my expectation. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see anything shoot back up in a hurry, but I think people are looking for stabilization, because this is\u2026the economy is kind of like a freight train, where it takes awhile for it to slow down, and you know, some people don\u2019t see it coming, because it\u2019s just slowing gradually. \u00a0And you know, as we\u2019re sitting here today, we don\u2019t know if that has stopped yet. \u00a0We think, we think that we\u2019re stabilizing, or about to stabilize. \u00a0But once it returns, it doesn\u2019t speed right up again. \u00a0It\u2019s so large, the economy\u2019s so large, so it\u2019s going to take awhile for it to regain momentum again. And I think, provided the interest rates stay where they\u2019re at, I think stabilization will last, will come.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>If you were to take an average month in ’06 [before the housing market collapse]…how many of these types of homes could you move, versus now? \u00a0What would that look like in terms of raw numbers?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>At its peak, and I would say\u2026in 2009, our business was off by nearly 60%. \u00a0It was dramatic<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact\/NHPR<\/p>

Like real estate agencies across the country, Mardis' firm has been finding its footing since the housing market collapsed<\/p><\/div>\n

drop over what the peak was in the mid-2000\u2019s. And we had a lot of adjustments we had to make in the way we did business. \u00a0In 2008 and 2009, we lost money…And we hadn\u2019t lost money at this company since the early \u201880s. We returned to profitability in 2010, and we are projecting it again this year. \u00a0The reasons for that are two-fold. One, business has been getting better in 2010 and 2011, but that combined with the cost-cutting and the revised way that we\u2019re doing business, all of those things come together and are making the picture look better.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>As you’re looking forward, are there any emerging trends that you’re seeing in this particular market?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Well, I don\u2019t see emerging trends. \u00a0One thing that is notable is that the spec builders, the number of spec homes that we have on the market right now, is slowly decreasing. \u00a0So that inventory is working off. \u00a0Some of that has to do with the fact that some of the spec builders have not reentered the market yet. \u00a0So the existing inventory that had been built, as it is worked off, we\u2019re starting to see just a couple of the spec builders step back in. \u00a0Which is kind of interesting, because for years, there had always…[on] this particular side of the lake…been about six or seven spec builders that have been very active in the construction of new homes, mostly on the waterfront. \u00a0And right now, I think there\u2019s one or two that are active. \u00a0And those that are active are holding less inventory. \u00a0So they\u2019re being very selective about what they buy. \u00a0But nonetheless, they\u2019re successful. \u00a0There\u2019s one builder that we\u2019re working with now that purchased a lot not too long ago, built a home, and we actually sold it before it was finished. \u00a0And this builder is now looking for additional inventory. \u00a0So it\u2019s that kind of momentum that\u2019s good to see, because the demand, you know, success breeds success.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>It sounds like, in the run-up to the housing collapse, a lot of what you were dealing with were new homes, new construction. \u00a0And…now it seems like, with the main construction guys [bowing] out, it’s more turnover?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact\/NHPR<\/p>

As the second home market has slowed down, spec builders are less willing to add more housing inventory to the Lakes Region's shores<\/p><\/div>\n

A: <\/span>It is mostly turnover. \u00a0Absolutely it is. \u00a0It\u2019s the end-user, as they\u2019re called. \u00a0I mean, somebody has to buy these spec homes, and it\u2019s not usually a spec builder buying a spec home. \u00a0So when you have the spec builders\u2019 inventory, when you have that market not as active as it was, what we\u2019re relying on, and what we are seeing, is the end-user market. \u00a0That would be the family that intends to purchase, improve the property, perhaps, and stay there for awhile.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Is there anything you’d like to add?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>One really interesting thing that I\u2019ve observed about the town of Moultonborough, in particular, is that the number of real estate transactions on the lake–in this town–supercede all those of all other [lake] towns combined, in a number of years. \u00a0Haven\u2019t checked to see what we\u2019ve been doing this year, but it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if again we find in the town of Moultonborough that the dollar volume transactions of units sold would exceed that…of all the other towns that front on Winnipesaukee combined. \u00a0And there are a couple of reasons that that occurs, I think. \u00a0One is that we have one of the lowest tax rates around, and that in large part has to do with the fact that it\u2019s a very real estate rich town. \u00a0It has 70 miles of frontage on Winnipesaukee, which is very high-valued real estate. \u00a0So it has a lot of\u2026a lot going for it in that regard.<\/p>\n

StateImpact recently put together an interactive map, with analysis, of taxes in tourism towns versus the rest of the state. \u00a0You can check it out here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

StateImpact has been on the road this week, as part of our month-long series on the state’s vacation home economy. We headed to the mother of all New Hampshire tourism communities: the town of Moultonborough, along Lake Winnipesaukee. \u00a0You may remember from our previous coverage that 61 percent of the homes in the area are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[528,507,516,499,154],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2109,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}