House prices in New Hampshire continued to rise faster than inflation last year, increasing an average of 6% in Merrimack County, as the number of homes on the market remained below the demand.
Statewide, the median price of a home sold in 2025 was $535,000, almost 4% higher or $20,000 more than the year before, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. The only bright spot is that the rate of increase is slowing.
“The median-priced home in Rockingham County was $670,000 last year. Even with a 10 percent down payment, a family would need an income of roughly $190,000 to purchase that home. That’s an unrealistic threshold for most working families,” NHAR President Josh Greenwald said in a prepared statement.
Sales of more affordable housing outpaced the single-family market: Condominium sales increased 6.6 percent, while manufactured housing sales surged 12.2 percent.
One major cause is a shortage of homes being put on the market. NH Realtors said 12,529 sales of single-family homes closed in 2025, a 4.5 percent increase over 2024, but that’s still less than one-third of the figure the group estimates is needed to make a “balanced housing market” in which prices would stabilize.
The 2025 NHAR Affordability Index stood at 58, meaning the median household income in New Hampshire is only 58 percent of what is required to qualify for the state’s median-priced home under current interest rates. The index has fallen for years, and last exceeded 100 in 2021.
