Christopher Bonta,Realtor/ Integrity and Honesty

The Town of Windham has been in the grip of a Buyers Market for well over two years now, and if you are selling your home you are painfully aware of this. As of recently though some good news is coming Windham's way. Before I go into stats and figures I want to explain what the term "absorption rate" means. When Realtors refer to the absorption rate for a Town or County,what we are talking about is the amount of time it will take for property currently on the market to be absorbed up (sold).

Historically, if the absorption rate being looked at is below "6" the market is viewed as being in a Sellers favor. This is because it will take under 6 months for a property to be sold, ideally a Sellers market occurs when the absorption rate is somewhere around 3-4 months or lower. The higher the absorption rate is the slower the market. Earlier this year I looked at the absorption rate for Windham and it was at 9.72, this meant that it was taking approximately 10 months for properties on the market to be absorbed (sold). Now though the most recent data on the market shows that Windham's absorption rate is down to 7.87 months. This decline of almost 2 months shows that property in the Town is starting to move and although we are still very much in a Buyers Market, our Town is on the right track. If you compare Windham to the overall County we are doing very well since Rockingham County's absorption rate is at 11.34 and is up from where it was earlier this year at 10.43.

If you are planning on Selling your home or would like any additional information regarding your property or current market conditions, please feel free to contact me I look forward to servicing your Real Estate needs.

If you are living in Rockingham County and trying to sell your home, then you have been well aware of the fact that Selling your home is not easy. The current market situation for Rockingham County is not good and has actually deteriorated since my last posting on the absorption rate for the County in June.

In June I posted a blog stating that the absorption rate for the County (the amount of time it will take the market to absorb the current inventory of homes) was at 10.43. Currently the absorption rate for Rockingham County is at 11.34,which is an almost 1% increase in absorption time. What this means for the average property owner in Rockingham County is this, it is taking even longer to sell your house now than it did 3 months ago. In June it was averaging 10.43 months and we are now seeing an average time of 11.34. This increase in the absorption rate means that as a County, Rockingham continues to be in a declining market and you can expect to see prices of properties continue to go down since market conditions have continued to deteriorate.

Unfortunately, this is not good news if you live in Rockingham County. If you have your property on the market, you need to be listening to your Realtor even more, since our market continues to move down. If you are thinking of Selling your home and would like more information regarding market conditions and your specific property, please feel free to contact me.

A few months ago I posted a blog regarding the absorption rate for the Town of Londonderry and I stated that through June Londonderry had an absorption rate of 6.5 months. This meant that Londonderry properties for sale were seeing an average market time of 6.5 months and based on historical statistics an absorption rate of approximately 6 months is not considered to be bad.

When a market is in a "Sellers Market" the absorption rate is below 6 months, somewhere around 2-3 months is a strong Sellers Market. If we are above the 6 month mark, then the market is considered to be in a "Buyers Market". Although Londonderry's current absorption rate is above the magic 6 month mark (currently holding at 6.6) it remains steady and has not moved higher up. This is continued good news for Londonderry residents, since this indicates that our market continues to be stronger than most Towns in Rockingham County.

If you are thinking of Selling your house and would like more information regarding your homes value and what is currently going on in the market, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to serving all your Real Estate needs.

In every kind of market we have in Real Estate all Realtors and Consumers have to deal with the issue of what is a "Reasonable Offer". As a Buyer or Seller, do you know what your Realtor thinks is a reasonable offer? In most cases I would say Consumers and Realtors never discuss this issue prior to signing a Agency Contract and they probably don't even discuss it during the Contract time. In most cases what is a reasonable offer will only come up when either the Buyer is making an offer or the Seller is having to review an offer, it's at this point that this "sticky" issue can arise. This can not only put the Buyer and Seller at odds with each other, but can actually involve the Buyer/Seller Agent with their Client.

Everyone has their own definition of what is a reasonable offer to make or what is a reasonable offer to accept, and if your a Realtor (especially in this market) you should be discussing what your Client thinks is a reasonable offer. If you are not then when it's time to make an offer, you as the Buyer Agent may find that you have an unreasonable Buyer (in your opinion) and the same thing can happen on the Sellers side. So what do you do when things like this come up, the answer is to not allow them to happen. Communication is key to a successful transaction and as Realtors you should know what your Client considers as reasonable, if your a Buyer/Seller and your Realtor has not discussed this with you then now is the time to bring up the issue, so you know where he/she stands regarding this topic.

The Town of Londonderry had its own version of the hit TV series "Extreme Makeover" with Project Bernadette. The project came about when friends of Bernadette became aware of the plight she was in; never one to complain, it appeared no one who new Bernadette was aware that her house was in dire need of a make over.

This past weekend , after weeks of preparation and organization, Project Bernadette was launched. Many in the Town of Londonderry were organized into a huge volunteer force; included in the numbers were the Londonderry High School Football Team led by their Coach, The Londonderry Knights of Columbus out of St. Jude Parish and a host of individual caring people who also just wanted to help . During this past Saturday and Sunday new flooring was installed, carpeting put down, rooms painted, windows installed , an attic emptied, landscaping done and much, much more.

To say that working this weekend on project Bernadette was satisfying would be an understatement, everyone involved felt truly blessed to have been able to help this wonderful woman and her son make over their house and give them both a more livable place to call home. This project would never have been accomplished if it were not for the selfless dedication and determination of one person. Jean Manley a friend of Bernadette who, after finding out about the situation she was in, orgainized and managed the entire project. Jean Manley's dedication over the past few months to put together the needed volunteers was indispensible to the project. I personally want to thank Jean Manley for her selfless Christian act of giving, I also want to thank all the other volunteers who came out over this weekend and joined my wife and I (along with our oldest son Sean) to help make Project Bernadette the success that it was.