The average home in Merrimack County is staying on the market six weeks longer and selling at a lower price compared with a year ago, mirroring a statewide trend.

Locally, first-quarter indicators point to a stagnant market: Fewer properties are selling, prices are down, and the amount of time it takes to sell a home has grown significantly, according to sales data released last week by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. But local Realtors are hoping the worst is over. They say the phones are ringing again and website traffic is picking up.

The good news is the numbers aren't as bad as last year, said association spokesman Dave Cummings.

From 2005 to 2006, the number of properties sold statewide dropped 18 percent while the average number of days they remained on the market grew from 83 to 94, Cummings said. Through the first quarter of this year, the number of properties sold has dropped 6.1 percent, even though the number of days on the market continued to increase to 137.

"Patience is definitely the watch word," Cummings said. "The fact that the properties are going out at a better rate than we've seen is really the bottom line for people."

Sales figures for the first three months of 2007 indicate the market is still suffering, but there are signs of a leveling off, said Exeter demographer Peter Francese, who tracks real estate trends in the state.

Francese said he doesn't expect prices to keep dropping this year, and he said the market will most likely begin to rebound.

"What we're seeing is that people are beginning to buy homes at a somewhat better pace than last year," he said. "I think that psychologically, people are saying, 'Oh well, I guess prices have drifted downward a bit and it's a pretty good time to get back into it and think about buying,' whereas last year, the dominant psychology was, prices are going to decline further."

Unemployment is low, the stock market is doing well, interest rates are relatively stable and, in New Hampshire, the demand for property is still soaring, Francese said. Those are all goods signs, he said.

New Hampshire's market has always been stronger than other states where there is less demand for property, Francese said. Buyers of second homes, retirement homes and property investments make a big difference here, he said.

"When you see a housing slump like we had last year, the slump is most likely not going to be as severe in New Hampshire as it would have been in an ordinary, more typical state. Nor is it going to last as long here as it would in other sates," he said.

Those strengths are reflected in the sales data, he said. In four New Hampshire counties, the average sale price is still $300,000 or above. And in three of those counties, the average sale price increased over last year.

Even in counties like Merrimack, where a typical home now spends close to 150 days on the market, things are not completely stagnant, he said.

"The fact of the matter is, in the end, the houses are still selling and they're selling awfully close to what they were selling for last year," Francese said.

The average price of a Merrimack County home dropped from $280,675 in the first quarter of 2006 to $267,003 in the first quarter of 2007. During the same time, the number of homes sold dropped from 262 to 257.

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