The median price for a single-family house in New Hampshire rose from $283,000 in 2018 to $470,000 in 2023, a 66 percent increase in five years. Between 2013 and 2023, the median price increased 114 percent, starting at $220,000 in 2013.
The most recently available data suggest household incomes in New Hampshire grew much more slowly than the price of a house. Between 2018 and 2022, median household income in New Hampshire rose 20 percent, and increased 40 percent between 2013 and 2022.
Prices did not rise evenly throughout the state. Between 2018 and 2023, the fastest growth was in Coos County, where the median price rose 104 percent, climbing from $113,000 to $230,000. In all other counties, however, while the growth in prices was slower in other counties during this period, overall prices were higher.
Rockingham County’s median single family house sale price increased 62 percent, which was substantially less than Coos County’s increase in percentage terms, but pushed the median sale price from $370,000 in 2018 to $600,000 in 2023. Every county in New Hampshire except for Cheshire, Coos, and Sullivan Counties had median house sale prices above $400,000 in 2023.
Growth rates were faster outside of New Hampshire’s more populous four southeastern counties. Sullivan (90 percent) and Carroll (89 percent) Counties sustained the next-highest growth rates after Coos County, followed by Belknap County (79 percent) in the Lakes Region and the Upper Valley’s Grafton County (77 percent).
Demand for housing, particularly in rural areas, has likely increased while supply has remained limited, contributing to the increase in prices. Changing preferences related to housing and an influx of new residents, outpaced only by Maine within New England in recent years, may be driving prices up faster in rural areas. More remote work opportunities and an increased interest in larger houses with more space, even if further from amenities, likely additionally resulted in more people moving to New Hampshire’s rural areas than would have otherwise.
Rural counties around the country experienced population growth immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic after losing population in the prior decade. While some of the movement to rural areas is due to changing preferences, residents seeking to buy a house may also have to live further from their work or desired amenities to afford a home.
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 substantially impacted the construction industry and slowed housing production, decreasing growth in the supply of housing and in the number of workers and firms who would otherwise add housing quickly in this constrained market.
Phil Sletten is the research director at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonprofit, independent policy research organization based in Concord and focused on the state budget, New Hampshire’s economy, and policies affecting Granite Staters, particularly those with low and moderate incomes.
