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.
The number of building permits for housing units issued in 2024 was as high as it’s been since 2006. If all of the permits were used, the state added 5,822 housing units in 2025, the Current Estimates and Trends in New Hampshire’s Housing Supply for 2026 found.
But the growth is fragile, with a fraction of the state’s cities and towns accounting for housing growth, noted the report, issued annually by the state Department of Business and Economic Affairs.
Nearly half of the permits were issued in municipalities, including Manchester, where housing growth was incentivized and supported by the Housing Champions program, which wasn’t funded in the most recent state budget and is on a path to be scrapped by the state Legislature.
In addition, 23 cities and towns, out of a total 234, representing 43.5% of the state’s population accounted for 63% of the housing permitted to be built in 2025.
“Housing production in the state is geographically narrow, with a small group of high-growth towns bearing the brunt of new development,” the report says.
Based on building permits issued, New Hampshire added 25,688 housing units since 2020, which is 78.5% of the 32,704 needed for that period, according to the 2023 New Hampshire Statewide Housing Needs Assessment.
That number presents 29% of the 88,364 new units needed by 2040 for a healthy housing market.
Manchester housing growth
There were 4,405 units permitted between 2020 and 2024 in the Southern New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission area. The 2023 needs assessment calls for 7,212.
Manchester permitted 364 in 2024, with 345 of those multi-family units, according to the BEA report. The city is one of six municipalities in the state that added more than 200 multi-family units, and one of 78 that increased its multi-family housing by at least 1%.
Manchester is also one of 12 that issued 100 or more housing unit permits. Other SNHRPC municipalities that issued more than 100 permits were Londonderry, with 372, and Derry, with 155.
Manchester is one of the 28 Housing Champion communities that were responsible for approving 2,643 housing units in 2024, 45% of the total number of units approved in the state. The other two in the SNHRPC region were Derry and Hooksett, with 30 units.
Last year, Manchester was among 11 cities and towns awarded that shared $5 million in grants to directly develop housing or to help upgrade infrastructure to support housing by the Housing Champions program.
The city was awarded more than $300,000 in grants – $205,500 in Housing Production Municipal Grants and $116,753 in Housing Infrastructure Municipal Grants to help increase capacity and upgrade fire suppression systems at 231 Merrimack St., which is being developed into affordable housing. The money allows the project to expand from 16 to 30 units.
The Housing Champions program, created by the Legislature in 2023 to encourage and support affordable housing development, was not funded in the most recent state budget. On Jan. 20, the Housing Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 10-8 to recommend that the program be scrapped.
The 28 communities under the program, in order to qualify for its grants, adopted zoning and land use regulations that promote housing, offer training resources to land use board members, and took steps to implement sewer and water improvements, public transportation or walkability improvements that support housing.
Multi-family permits up, single-family down
The 5,822 housing unit permits issued in 2024 was the highest since 2006, when 7,702 units were permitted. The total number of housing units in the state as of July 1, 2025, was 664,039, assuming all units permitted in 2024 were built.
Statewide, single-family home permits have decreased, while multi-family are on the rise.
The percentage of single-family home permits represents 35.6% of total permits issued in the state in 2024; in 2023 single-family permits represented 45.9% of the total. There were 2,239 single-family permits issued across the state in 2023, and 2,074 issue in 2024.
That’s been a trend since 2020, when the percentage of single-family permits statewide was 59.2%. It’s decreased every year, according to the report.
The highest number of single-family permits were in Rockingham County, with 507, followed by Hillsborough County, with 306.
There were 3,535 permits issued for units in multi-family housing in 2024, up from 2,511 in 2023. They accounted for 62% of the total number of units added in 2024, the highest percentage since the survey began more than 50 years ago. The remaining 2.4% of permits issued were for manufactured housing.
Hillsborough County had the highest number of permits in multi-family buildings, 1,032. Rockingham County was next, with 954.
The report credits the InvestNH program for the sharp increase in multi-family housing permits.
The $100 million program, funded by the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, awarded money primarily for new housing units in multi-unit buildings and has increased the housing supply by 4,721 units statewide to date, according to the report.
The reported notes that additional units that have been approved are in the pipeline from Invest NH, but have not been built because of municipal infrastructure and site condition delays. Those unites will likely be counted in next year’s survey results.