The state's red-hot housing market may be cooling a bit, according to the head of the New Hampshire Housing Authority.
"The current market, I think, is showing a little bit of slowing in sales activity, but I think that's related in part to inventory," Executive Director Dean Christon said during a break in a conference focusing on housing and the economy Thursday.
Rick Herrick, a loan officer at PrimeLending in Bedford and past president of the Mortgage Bankers and Brokers Association of New Hampshire, called it "a slowdown."
It's gone from a "completely sellers market into what I call a healthy real estate market," Herrick said after the conference at the Manchester Downtown Hotel.
Properties that would attract five to 10 offers last year now are receiving two or three, he said.
Herrick also said rising interest rates were driving more people into the market looking for homes than out of it.
Cheryl Young, senior economist at the online residential real estate website Trulia, said home sales nationally are "starting to flatten or go down nationally."
Young shared national statistics that showed people 65 and over were waiting longer to move out of their single-family homes. The age when there were more senior households moving into multifamily than single-family housing was 75 in 2005 and 80 in 2016.
Meanwhile, 44.2% of New Hampshire's millennials, those age 18 to 34, were living with at least one relative in 2015, higher than the national average of 39.6%.
Other research showed what age groups purchased homes in the past 12 months: 42% aged 24-38 and another 26% belonging to Generation X, those aged 39 to 53.
Young said a survey of millennials indicated 86% said they planned to buy a home in the next two homes, but that generation also is juggling student loans.
"They are really saddled with a lot of debt," she said.
