TODAY'S ZEN COHEN:

Homes in Cheshire County were scooped up in 37 days, on average, in the first quarter of 2021 -- less than half the time they spent on the market over the same period last year -- according to data from the Concord nonprofit N.H. Association of Realtors (NHAR).

Real estate prices continue to climb, too, following a trend that accelerated last year. At $259,000, the median first-quarter sales price in Cheshire County was up more than 20 percent from 2020. Statewide, that figure was $362,900 in March.

"We've never seen pricing like this in the history of the state," NHAR spokesman Dave Cummings said.

Also unprecedented -- at least in Cummings' 15 years at NHAR -- is the low supply of houses on the market, which he and local Realtors say has generated a windfall for sellers. In Cheshire County, the number of homes for sale fell from 3,385 in March 2020 to just 1,137 in the same month this year.

If real estate is fetching record prices, though, why aren't more people putting their homes on the market?

One explanation may be that the local housing stock is simply too limited to match demand, according to Chris Masiello, CEO of The Masiello Group, a Better Homes and Gardens real estate affiliate.

Masiello, whose company sells properties across northern New England, said that as millennials enter the real estate market and people relocate from other parts of the country, demand has swelled in recent years. Housing in the Keene area hasn't kept pace, he said.

"We just have got a larger population than we have existing homes," he said. "... For all intents and purposes, we're dealing with the same number of homes that we had in 2008, but with a 2021 population."

That imbalance means anyone selling their home must contend with an expensive and competitive climate for buyers while trying to find a new place, according to Joshua Greenwald, a broker at Greenwald Realty Associates in Keene.

Even for people willing to relocate to a rental property, options in the area are limited, he noted. The rental vacancy rate in Cheshire County last year was 1.9 percent, according to the independent state agency N.H. Housing -- well below what experts consider healthy.

"Somebody has to be in a situation where they have an exit strategy," he said.

An influx of out-of-state buyers during the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the market imbalance by inflating demand without increasing the amount of available real estate, Greenwald said. (That trend is pricing many locals out of the market, he added, citing one client -- a man moving to Keene from Brooklyn because his software-development company lets staff work remotely -- who can afford more than many area residents.)

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