Download a PDF version of this Fact Sheet here.

Median Single-Family House Sale Prices and Interest Rates are Rising

• The median sale price for a single-family house in the Granite State reached $499,000 in June 2023, a 51.2 percent increase from June 2020 and the highest monthly median sale price recorded.
• Using a 6.64 percent 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the average for 2023 thus far, with a 5 percent downpayment of $23,500 and the 2022 average monthly New Hampshire property taxes per household of $712, a homebuyer would need to pay a monthly mortgage of $3,575, a 111 percent increase from the 2017 median monthly mortgage and tax estimate for new house buyers (see methodological notes here).
• The 2022 median income New Hampshire household would need to spend nearly 48 percent of its monthly income to afford a median-priced house in 2023 thus far.

Low Housing Inventory

• New Hampshire needs 23,500 more housing units to meet current demand, and 90,000 more housing units by 2040.
• The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University estimates a balanced housing market has about 6.5 months of inventory. New Hampshire only had an average of 1.5 months of housing market inventory from October 2022 to September 2023.
• According to the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, a balanced rental market vacancy rate is approximately 5 percent. The vacancy rate for two-bedroom apartments in New Hampshire was 0.6 percent in data collected during early 2023.

Granite State Renters Face Rising Costs

• About 49 percent of New Hampshire renters paid more than 30 percent of their income for housing in 2022.
• Monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment was $1,764 in early 2023, an annual increase of 11.4 percent. The increase was driven in part by utility costs, which increased 59.9 percent between 2022 and 2023.

Costs Increased Throughout the State

• Between July and September 2023, median single-family house sale prices ranged from $241,633 in Coos County to $618,833 in Rockingham County.
• Median single-family house sale prices increased in all counties between September 2022 and September 2023, ranging from a 3.8 percent increase in Hillsborough to 14.2 percent in Sullivan.
• In 2023, median two-bedroom rental costs ranged from $1,103 in Coos County to $2,081 in Grafton County.

New State Budget Housing Investments

• The Affordable Housing Fund received $25 million to provide grants and low-interest loans to people with low-to-moderate incomes for building or acquiring housing.
• $10 million was allocated to the InvestNH Fund to support multifamily rental housing development and incentivize municipalities to add units and reform zoning.
• The Housing Champions Program was allocated $5.25 million to incentivize municipalities to make infrastructure upgrades to support workforce housing.
• Homelessness and Housing Shelter Programs received $10 million, which will increase rates paid to shelter programs and help pay for housing individuals during cold weather.

Download a PDF of the Fact Sheet Housing in New Hampshire: Shortage Raises Costs with citations, published at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s 8th Annual Conference, by clicking here.