When it comes to flipping homes, New Hampshire shows little interest in that segment of the real estate market. In fact, according to a new report, the Granite State ranks seventh among states with the lowest home-flipping percentage rates.
In simple terms, flipping is buying a home, usually renovating it, then turning right around and selling it at a higher price, with the hope of selling at a very profitable ROI, or return on investment.
As a percentage of total home sales, New Hampshire’s rate was 5 percent in the second quarter of 2022, according to a new report from national real estate sales data curator ATTOM. In fact, New Hampshire was joined in the group of 10 lowest rates by three other New England states: Connecticut and Maine (tied at No. 5, 4.9 percent) and Vermont at No. 3, 4.5 percent.
Hawaii ranked lowest with a 2.1 percent home-flipping rate for the quarter, according to the ATTOM data.
“I would think that the cost of real estate in most parts of New Hampshire is probably way higher than the national average, making it harder to speculate, especially when you may have already paid 30 percent or much more over ask,” said John Rice, a broker with Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty in Rye. Rice keeps the monthly sales data for the Seacoast Board of Realtors.
New Hampshire recorded 289 home flips during the second quarter (April, May and June) of this year. According to ATTOM’s data, the median purchase price on those properties was $328,705. The median flipped price was $400,000, a gross return on investment of 21.7 percent.
That’s significantly more than the same quarter in 2021, when the gross return on investment was 14.3 percent.
Among New Hampshire’s counties, Rockingham had the greatest number of flipped homes (100, almost a third of the state total), while flipped sales in Cheshire had the highest ROI, 46.5 percent.
An overall slowdown in the real estate market due to higher interest rates and inflation/recession fears could impact speculators in the future, according to Rice.
“I suspect that rising mortgage rates will throw a wet blanket over this market segment,” he said. — PAUL BRIAND
