CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire’s new year began with slightly better single-family home sales numbers than 2025, but with a much higher median January sales price.
Manchester buyers got a break on sales price, but had to move fast in a super-tight market.
The state’s median sales price for a single-family home in January was $540,000, up 7.5% from $502,500 in January 2025, according to the monthly market report from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. Median means that half sold for a higher price, half for less.
Manchester’s January MSP was $447,000, up 3.8% from the same time last year.
Statewide, key sales indicators all increased from a year ago, including closed sales [2.1%], pending sales [9.1%], new listings [0.8%] and overall homes for sale [10.1%].
Inventory and affordability, though, two important indicators of market health, remained stubbornly low.
Inventory was 1.4, which means it would take less than a month and a half to sell all the properties listed at the current pace if no new properties were added. It was 1.3 a year ago. A six-months’ inventory is considered what’s needed for a healthy market.
The affordability index was 59, the same as a year ago. That means that New Hampshire’s median income is 59% of what’s needed to make monthly payments on a median-priced home, including mortgage, insurance and property taxes.
Buyers did get a little bit of a break in January compared to a year ago. The average price paid was 98.3% of list price, compared to 98.9% a year ago. Properties stayed on the market for 44 days, compared to 42 in January 2025.
Indicators in the much smaller condominium/townhouse market were mixed.
The January condo/townhouse MSP was $410,000, down 3.8% from $426,000 a year ago, on 228 closed sales, a 0.4% drop.
Pending sales were up 8.9%, and overall homes for sale were up 5.4%, but new listings were down 19.6%, and inventory dropped from 1.7 to 1.6.
Things looked a little brighter for buyers – aside from the lower MSP, they paid 99.5% of list price, compared to 99.9% a year ago and the affordability index was 78, compared to 65. Homes stayed on the market an average 46 days, compared to 36 in January 2025.
Manchester, county numbers
Manchester’s single-family home MSP continues to be well below the state’s, and the ultra-tight market was slightly looser than this time last year.
January’s MSP was $447,500, up 3.8% from $431,000 a year ago. Closings were up 8.6%, to 38 properties from 35 a year ago.
Buyers had to act fast, though – with inventory at 0.7, homes stayed on the market an average 20 days, but that was an improvement over January 2025’s inventory of 0.5, when they stayed on the market 15 days. Buyers paid an average 100.1% of list price, down from 101.5%.
Things may look better in the coming months – new listings were up 44.1%, 49 compared to 34 a year ago.
Hillsborough County’s single-family home January MSP was on track with the state’s, at $540,429 on 166 properties sold, up from $521,000 on 151 properties sold 12 months ago. Condo/townhouse buyers paid a median $373,000 on 73 properties, compared to $360,000 on 56 properties.
The highest single-family home MSP continued to be in Rockingham County, on the Seacoast, at $650,000 on 157 properties sold in January, down slightly from $657,500 on 133 properties a year before.
The lowest MSP continued to be in Coos County, the northern tip of the state, at $224,000 on 29 properties sold, down from $312,000 on 21 properties in January 2025.
Carroll County had the steepest MSP year-over-year increase, at 25%, $537,015 in January compared to $429,450. Four other counties also had price increases – Strafford [11.9%], Cheshire [6.4%], Grafton [6.1%] and Hillsborough [3.7%].
The biggest decline in MSP year-over-year was Coos County’s 28.2%, followed by Belknap [5%], Sullivan [2.6%], Rockingham [1.1%] and Merrimack [0.5%].
Coos County also had the largest increase in number of sales – 38.1% – of the four counties, out of 10, that sold more single-family homes in January than 12 months before. The other counties with increases in sales were Rockingham [15.8%], Hillsborough [9.9%] and Strafford [1.7%].
The biggest decrease was in Merrimack County, at 20.7%, with 65 closings compared to 82 a year ago. The others were Grafton [8.5%], Cheshire [7.7%], Sullivan [6.7%], Carroll [5.8%] and Belknap [4.1%].
National picture
The median sales price in the U.S. in January was $405,400, up 0.4% from January 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors. Single-family home sales were up 5.1% from December, and 1.4% from 12 months ago, with 4.35 sold, the strongest pace in nearly three years, according to the NAR.
“Lower mortgage rates and slower home price growth helped spur buyer activity, and sales increased month-over-month in every region,” the NAR said in its monthly report. Sales were down in the Northeast, but rose in the South, and held steady in the West and Midwest.
There were 1.18 million homes for sale, down 18.1% from the previous month, but 3.5% higher compared to a year ago, with inventory at 3.3.