Bills that address multi-family housing in commercial zones and towns and city length limits on dead-end roads are close to becoming law after Committees on Conference agreed on them this week.
The populations of Manchester and Nashua, New Hampshire’s largest cities, have rebounded from pandemic-era declines over the last few years, but slow housing growth may temper any economic gains, according to U.S. Census Bureau numbers released last week.
Some of the housing supply gains achieved in recent years remain alive despite a slew of repeal-focused bills that were introduced months ago, as the New Hampshire Legislature gets close to finishing up business.
During their April 2026 meeting, the Manchester Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) denied a set of variance requests for a proposed housing complex at the end of Woodland Avenue, a street immediately to the west of the Hannaford Plaza on Hanover Street.
“Affordable” housing means different things to different people. There’s the official designation, which can be a hot button when it’s proposed for a neighborhood. There’s the mortgage lender’s definition when they’re considering your application. Then there’s the very specific definition when you sit down and crunch your numbers.
his week, NHFPI released a new analysis of New Hampshire’s housing market, highlighting how high prices, limited supply, and rising rents continue to challenge affordability. While price growth has slowed in some areas, housing costs still outpace incomes, limiting options for renters and prospective homebuyers statewide. Below are three key takeaways.
A bill that addresses one of the biggest barriers to developing housing in New Hampshire that passed the House earlier this month breezed through a Senate Commerce Committee public hearing Tuesday.
A question from an audience member summed it up: Given prices, low inventory and the fact the average age of a first-time homebuyer is 40, what hope is there for younger people who want to buy a home in New Hampshire?
Single-family home closed sales dropped to an all-time low for the month of February in New Hampshire, part of a national trend of an overall drop in home sales.
Nearly half of the state’s renters have housing costs that make them “cost-burdened,” with nearly a quarter paying 50% of their monthly income for housing, according to the latest figures from the American Community Survey.
New Hampshire’s housing crisis has sent prices skyrocketing and made it tough to find the right home, but there’s one statistic the state can take pride in – it has the lowest “zombie” vacancy rate in the nation.
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.
Ending Housing Champions would pull support from communities that have already done the work and planned projects around it. It would slow housing. It would raise costs. It would break trust between the state and local governments.
The state is doing a better job of getting closer – though not reaching – its housing goals, with only a fraction of the state’s municipalities responsible for housing growth, according to the annual housing supply report for the state released Tuesday.
New Hampshire’s housing market showed signs of improvement overall in 2025, with several key indicators increasing for the time in several years.
“I’m the mayor of the state’s largest city, and I’ve effectively been priced out of my own city,” Ruais said. “I could not make that same purchase today. That is not a long term recipe for success for the city of Manchester, for the state of New Hampshire.”
The housing market in New Hampshire continues to loosen up a little, a trend that’s been consistent for the last few months, but it hasn’t been enough to make a dent in the cost of buying a home.
A coalition created in 2020 to tackle the state’s housing crisis is embarking on its next phase, a three-year roadmap to continue work that over the past four years “made significant progress toward its mission.”
It’s easy to say that people just need to make better choices. But the truth is, even people who are working full time or holding down two jobs, budgeting carefully and saving where they can are struggling to afford the basics. And it’s not because of lattes. It’s because of math.
One of the toughest nuts to crack in the struggle to increase affordable housing in New Hampshire is access to water and sewer infrastructure that would allow more density. Understanding where that that infrastructure is and how it interacts with zoning just got easier with the latest addition to the New Hampshire Zoning Atlas.