Spring is here and a welcome respite from the cold days of winter. The real estate business appears to be heading for a solid recovery. Our current experience indicates the Upper Valley is trending along national movements with greater activity and stronger pricing.

What does this mean to you?

If you’re a seller, it means the opportunity to market your property is better than it has been for a long time. If you’re a buyer, it means it’s time to “get off the fence” and try to find your dream home now while the inventory for sale is balanced and mortgage rates are extremely advantageous.

Our experience team in Lyme and Hanover is ready and able to help guide you with the latest information and timely knowledge of the market today. Please do not hesitate to contact us with your real estate questions no matter how minor you think they are. We welcome the opportunity to show off our expertise – the best place to start is here!

Best Wishes for a productive spring season and the summer ahead.

Jane Eakin
Martha E. Diebold Real Estate Lyme Office

One of Lyme’s newest residents, Jane Eakin, has joined Martha Diebold Real Estate as a sales agent servicing the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont. Jane has spent the last several years working in real estate sales for Heney Realtors in Central Vermont and is very excited about growing new roots here in her new Upper Valley home.

Jane has been a Board member of the Kent Museum in Calais, Vermont for many years helping raise funds to restore the historic Calais Tavern. Among many of her interests, she has a passion for calligraphy and is an avid gardener. Jane grew up on a 1500 acre South Dakota ranch, riding her horse to the one room schoolhouse her grandfather built, making her well suited for life in New England! She also lived in Chicago before moving to Calais, Vermont.

Jane brings her love of architecture, the Upper Valley and helping buyers and sellers with their real estate needs to our firm. We welcome Jane and wish her much success in her home. Stop by our Lyme office or give Jane a call. You’ll be delighted you did!

New Hampshire residential home sales continued its consistent upward trend in August, with 22 percent more sales than August 2011, according to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.

It marked the eighth time in eight months that sales were at least 15 percent ahead of last year’s pace, and brought the total number of 2012 sales to 8413, 21 percent ahead of the 6,973 in the first eight months of 2011.

Additionally, for the first time this year, the median price of those monthly sales was level with the median price from the same month prior year – $210,000 in August 2011, and $210,000 in August 2012.

“We do not predict the future, but it is fair to say that this improved median price trend is not surprising, considering the sales numbers we’ve been witnessing this year” said NHAR President John Rice, a 40- year veteran of the real estate industry and an agent with Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty in Rye. “Just as it will not be surprising if six months from now we are talking about median price in New Hampshire being on the rise.”

In fact, August median price did increase in six of the state’s 10 counties, compared to August 2011, including a 3.5 percent rise in the Hillsborough, the state’s largest county.

And all10 experienced sales increases in August, with a range of 9 percent in Grafton County to 41 percent in Sullivan County.

Contact Martha Diebold Real Estate for more information on the New Hampshire real estate market.