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Designed after the Solomon Richardson House in Old Sturbridge Village, this home is right out of Country Living!  A gardener's paradise with solarium for plants and passive solar gain.  A wonderful house for entertaining, the living room/dining room is open to the kitchen, the enormous living room fireplace is complete with a kettle and crane, and the corner kitchen fireplace is a classic.  Just as enticing is a 1/5 interest in beachfront on Highland Lake.  Enjoy the water access without the hefty tax bill of direct water frontage!  Offered at $475,000.  Visit www.NHSaltbox.com for more photos and details.

Stacey Viandier, Listing Agent, 603-526-4116

Every year the National Association of REALTORS® publishes a profile of buyers and sellers.  Working with a REALTOR® who is familiar with these buyer statistics and understands how they might impact the marketing and sale of your home is definitely to your advantage.  Below are some additional facts about buyers.

• The typical buyer searched 12 weeks and viewed 10 homes before making a buying decision.  In other words, sellers need to be patient as buyers look around.
• 87% of buyers financed their home purchase and usually financed about 91% of the sales price.  With tighter restrictions on lending, buyers with cash should be cherished.
• The top factor influencing where a buyer purchased a home was the quality of the neighborhood.  If your neighbors are less than stellar, you can only overcome this with proper pricing.
• The median price of a home purchased in the Northeast was $215,000.
• 90% of buyers in the Northeast purchased a home through a real estate agent.
• Nearly all buyers ranked the Internet and the real estate agent as the most useful sources in their search process.

Call me if you are looking for a REALTOR® who understands the housing market and how it impacts you!  603-526-4116; donna@donnaforest.com; www.donnaforest.com.

A warm and welcoming waterfront home with lake views and designed with year-round vacationing in mind.  Beautiful cook's kitchen, perfect for cooking for large gatherings and open to living room.  Two fieldstone fireplaces, family and billiards rooms.  Five bedrooms, four baths, and outdoor shower.  Sip your morning coffee on the lakeside screen porch or stone patio.  Offered at $750,000.  For more photos and details, visit www.GetAwayToNH.com

Marilyn Kidder, Listing Broker, 603-526-4116

Then you'll want to see this beautiful home in New London.  Sited well back from Main Street with a beautifully designed landscape of trees, shrubbery, and flowering gardens, this gracious, elegant, and eminently livable, brick-ended, Federal of Royal Barry Wills design has earned its recognized "presence" on Main Street.  Finish details throughout create style and subtle grace.  Crown moldings, raised panel trim, wainscoting, oak flooring, detailed mantels, curved open banisters, and much more.  The kitchen is updated and offers wonderful work and entertaining spaces.  The dining room will host both your small and largest gatherings.  The sun room offers the perfect "hang out" for reading, TV, games with family, and more.  The gas fireplaces in the formal living room and den/office will keep you snug and warm.  The second floor offers a master bedroom with fireplace and private bath, along with 3 additional bedrooms.  Another room with bath over the garage provides the perfect "bunk room" for visiting grandchildren (or maybe an office or exercise room?).  The lower level play room leaves more space to enjoy with guests or visiting family.  Add the views of Mt. Kearsarge and Gunite pool and you're home!  Visit www.NHMainStColonial.com for more photos and details.  Call us today to schedule your showing - 603-526-4116.

Marilyn Kidder, Listing Broker

The New Hampshire residential real estate market ended 2012 with the most unit sales since 2006, the highest sales volume since 2007 and, over the last five months, a trend toward improving median price as well, according to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS® (NHAR). The 12,961 sales of single family residential properties was a 21 percent increase over the 10,714 sold in 2011, and the $3.2 billion in total sales volume was also 21 percent higher than that of a year ago. Median price in 2012, which had been lagging behind that of last year by 6.5 percent after the first four months, ended the year at $202,000, a hair ahead of the $201,700 in 2011. “Certainly there are a variety of economic factors that will be critical in terms of a sustained housing recovery, but we have reasons to be encouraged,” said 2013 NHAR President Bill Weidacher, a 30-year veteran of the real estate industry and a managing broker at Keller Williams Metropolitan Realty in Bedford. “Rather than the occasional statistical anomaly which we had seen over the past six years, this seems to be a genuine trend based on simple supply and demand principles.” To that end, each month in 2012 saw a substantial increase in unit sales compared to the same month one year prior, including a 38 percent increase in November. Of the last 18 months, 17 have seen an uptick in unit sales. “When you begin to see that sort of a consistent upward movement in sales, in a healthy market you would expect that to lead to a decrease in inventory and ultimately an increase in price, and that’s just what we’ve seen,” Weidacher said. “Even so, we don’t want to give the impression that we are expecting dramatic price gains any time soon. “ Slow and steady are the watchwords here.” Prices remained below 2011 levels for each of the first seven months in 2012, but that began to turn in August, when the $210,000 median price was equal to that of August a year earlier. September witnessed a 2.3 percent increase, followed by 11.6 percent in October, 9.1 percent in November and 0.3 percent in December, leading to the year-end median price of $202,000. Locally, each of the 10 New Hampshire counties saw significant unit sales increases in 2012 compared to 2011, ranging from a 17 percent boost in Belknap County to 24 percent in Coos County. The state’s largest, Hillsborough County, witnessed a 23 percent gain in unit sales. Four counties saw increased median sale prices in 2012, four counties saw decreases, and both Carroll and Hillsborough counties remained unchanged from 2011 prices. December 2012 data residentialData December 2012 condo salesSource:  Press Release, Dave Cummings, NHAR Director of Communications

Every year the National Association of REALTORS®  publishes a profile of Home Buyers and Sellers based on survey results.  Below are some facts from the 2012 report that sellers might find eye opening!

• The median size of a home sold was 1900 square feet.  Only 9% of buyers purchased a home over 3500 square feet.  If your house is significantly larger or smaller than 1900 square feet, there are fewer buyers for your size house.
• 83% of buyers purchased a home with 3 bedrooms.  If you are selling a 2 bedroom or 4+ bedroom, you are targeting only 17% of the buyer pool.
• Only 8% of the sales in the Northeast were homes built prior to 1910.  Translation – not many buyers for old homes.
• Approximately 59% of buyers had no children, 18% had one child, 16% had two, and 7% had 3+.  The majority of buyers are not looking for “large family” homes.
• 90% of buyers in the Northeast used an agent to purchase a home.  The top home search sources are the internet, real estate agents, and yard signs.

Feel free to contact me if you are looking for a REALTOR® who understands the housing market and how it impacts you!  603-526-4116; donna@donnaforest.com

Donna Forest, ABR, Broker Associate

One of the most important steps you can take to insure that you will be successful in today’s market is to engage a Real Estate Professional (a REALTOR®).  Although this has always been important, the challenges of today’s market make it more so. A REALTOR® working for you as your Listing or Buyer’s Agent, at the very least, owes you the specific fiduciary duties of loyalty, obedience, disclosure, confidentiality, reasonable care, diligence and accounting.  You will know that you can trust your agent, and that she will be looking out for your best interests.  In addition, working with a professional will also provide a personal guide through the complex maze of either analyzing the market to determine the correct strategy for selling your home or helping you find and, ultimately, purchase a home.  In either case, she is working for you, and you can count on her for expert guidance, an ability to network with other professionals crucial to the process (inspectors, home stagers, painters, lenders, etc.), knowledge of the local market and communities in the area, familiarity with all the steps and forms required to sell or purchase a home, and strong negotiating and communication skills. There is no doubt that the internet has revolutionized the home selling or buying process.  There are excellent tools and resources available along with mountains of information.  It’s a great opportunity for both sellers and buyers to educate themselves in advance of contacting an agent. But, when it comes to taking the important step of listing or buying a home, nothing can replace the “on the ground” experience and professional skills of a REALTOR®.  This is not the time to try to “go it alone” out there.  Take advantage of all that a professional has to offer.  The end result will be a smoother and more satisfying transaction. Give “The Best Team in Town” at Coldwell Banker Milestone Real Estate a call for a free, no-obligation consultation.  603-526-4116

Mount Sunapee is ready for the long weekend. They have been making snow all week building base depths and re-surfacing. Plus, we received 3” of new snow Wednesday. 50 trails will be open on 200 of 233 acres of terrain. All 11 lifts are scheduled to operate including all three quad chairs. All 4 terrain parks are open with more than 50 features for all abilities including the skier/boarder cross course on Eastside and the Bob Skinner’s 603 Terrain Park with 34 features including the new AcroBag. There’s only one other big resort in New Hampshire close to being 86% open and that resort is way up north. Come see why Mount Sunapee is ranked year after year in the Annual SKI Magazine Reader Survey with the best snow surfaces in the East. The big mountain with the best snow is right in your backyard. The Pete Kilpatrick Band with special guest John Popper from Blues Traveler will open the FestEVOL concert at Mount Sunapee Resort on Saturday, March 23. O.A.R. will headline the concert. In 2011 O.A.R. and the Pete Kilpatrick Band played to a sold out FestEVOL crowd. The Pete Kilpatrick Band recently released their 6th studio album, Heavy Fire, in 2012. John Popper and Blues Traveler are celebrating their 25th anniversary and their 11th studio album, Suzie Cracks The Whip. A