New Hampshire is building more homes than it was a decade ago, but a new state report says it isn't building nearly enough, and it isn't building the right mix.
New Hampshire Housing released its 2026 housing report, "Housing Is New Hampshire's Future: Why More Homes Matter for Our Workforce, Economy, and Communities," in late September. The nonprofit news site InDepthNH.org published the announcement Sept. 24.
"Housing affects far more than where people live," said Heather McCann, managing director of engagement, policy and communications at New Hampshire Housing. "It influences our workforce, our economy, and the long-term vitality of our communities."
According to the full report, the median sale price for a single-family home in New Hampshire hit a record $575,000 as of June 2026, citing the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. A household would need to earn about $189,000 a year, or about $91 an hour for a full-time worker, to afford it. Only 15% of New Hampshire households earn that much, and among renters the share is just 4%.
Renting isn't much easier. The statewide median effective rent reached $2,011 a month in 2026 so far, according to CoStar data in the report. Affording that without spending more than 30% of income on housing takes $80,440 a year, or $38.67 an hour, which is 48% above the state's estimated median hourly wage of $26.10. Median rents now top $2,000 in Lebanon, Portsmouth, Nashua, Dover and Manchester, the report says.
Building, but not enough
The state added 25,872 housing units between 2020 and 2025, about 39% of the projected need for 2030 and 25% of the need for 2040, according to the report. New Hampshire needs more than 100,000 units by 2040, with 76,353 still to go. Hitting the 2030 benchmark would mean raising production from a recent average of 5,174 units a year to about 8,133 a year.
Permitting has recovered from a low of 1.7 units per 1,000 residents in 2009 to 3.6 in 2025, but that is only about one-fifth of the 1986 peak of 17.9.
The mix is lopsided. From 2020 to 2025, municipalities issued permits for 28,545 units. Single-family homes made up 18,740 units, about 66%. Buildings with five or more units accounted for 7,873, about 28%. Duplexes accounted for just 1,036 units, or 4%, and triplexes and fourplexes 896 units, or 3%. The report calls this a continued "smaller scale housing" gap.
Activity was concentrated, too. Just 23 of the state's 234 municipalities accounted for more than half of all permitted units. Hillsborough County has reached only 22.9% of its projected 2040 need and Rockingham County 25%, compared with 72.9% in Coös County.
The report measures the strain near jobs, too. Portsmouth has 3.37 workplace jobs per nonseasonal housing unit and Lebanon 2.82, against a suggested target of 1.3 to 1.7.
New Hampshire Housing also interviewed 10 employers, including Bensonwood, the Monadnock-region construction and manufacturing company. "Creative efforts by individual businesses will only solve these problems on a small scale for a few people for a short period of time," said Emily Benson of Bensonwood. She added, "As we look down the road, we will likely have to consider options outside the state for future growth opportunities."
Why it matters for Contractors
Lifting production from about 5,174 units a year to about 8,133 is the report's 2030 benchmark, and any push in that direction runs straight through the building trades. The biggest opening the report points to is the middle: duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes made up only about 7% of units permitted from 2020 to 2025. Builders who can price and deliver those smaller multifamily buildings efficiently are positioned for a segment the state says is missing.
Geography matters too. Hillsborough and Rockingham counties have the most catching up to do, and the report names Epping, Londonderry, Brentwood, Lebanon, Carroll, Merrimack, Portsmouth and Thornton among the communities with the highest permit growth relative to their housing stock.
There's also a workforce angle. The report describes employers losing candidates who can't afford to move closer, and it notes that remote work can't "build a home or make a product onsite." Bensonwood's warning about growing outside the state is a reminder that housing costs hit construction employers as well as everyone else.