As Granite Staters eye ever-increasing purchase prices for a single-family home, state and federal policy makers wrestle with solutions that create more housing supply.
Among them is bipartisan federal legislation on housing that is being held hostage by President Donald Trump’s fixation on a bill that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship with such documents as U.S. passports or birth certificates.
The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a legislative package that, among other details, would help lower the cost of housing by banning Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms from buying up single-family homes, providing funding and cutting red tape to help build more homes for the middle-class, and making it easier for veterans to buy homes.
The final House vote for the legislation was 358-32. The final Senate vote was 85-5.
The bill — and the rare bipartisan agreement — was hailed by the New Hampshire congressional delegation:
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH: “With affordable housing options out of reach for far too many working Americans, people are looking to Congress to cut red tape, expand our housing supply and lower costs. With the passage of this bipartisan, bicameral housing package, we’ve taken a major step towards lowering the cost of housing for families across the nation.”
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH: “This bipartisan bill takes a series of major steps forward to crack down on big corporate investors that buy up housing communities, build more homes that people can afford, and restore the American dream of homeownership. I’m glad to see it pass the Senate, and I look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on New Hampshire and the country.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-NH01: “This bipartisan legislation takes important steps forward to stop Wall Street from buying up single-family homes and driving up costs, increase our supply of affordable housing, and lower costs on everything from rent to construction to repairs.”
U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-NH02: “Our bipartisan bill takes practical steps to build more homes, reduce needless delays, expand financing options, and crack down on costly practices of corporate investors who are buying up the American Dream. I will never stop fighting to ensure Granite Staters can stay and thrive in the communities we all love.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the bill in advance of a scheduled all-hands-on-deck signing by the president. The New Hampshire native said the bill was “another promise made, promise kept” by the president.
But Trump abruptly canceled last week’s signing, saying he won’t sign it “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”
Trump declared over the weekend on Truth Social that the housing bill was “of little importance” as he continued to press for voter ID legislation. He underscored that on Monday during White House comments saying the housing bill was “so unimportant,” further describing it later in the same conversation as “a yawn.”
On Monday, June 29, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent the bill to the White House, giving Trump 10 days to sign the bill, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.
Pappas called the move to hold the housing bill hostage “outrageous.”
Hassan said she found the tactic “wrong, but unsurprising.”
He and Hassan hosted a conversation with some New Hampshire housing advocates in Manchester on June 29 to discuss both the legislation and the ransom.
“President Trump is completely disconnected from the real struggles of American families, saying he wants to keep housing prices high, that he doesn’t think about people’s financial situations, and that he loves inflation,” Hassan said after the session that included representatives from several housing-related organizations, including New Hampshire Housing, Housing Action NH, and the NH Home Builders Association.
She added the housing legislation is “what hard-working Granite Staters both need and deserve.”
Pappas said the Manchester meeting “reaffirmed what I have been hearing from Granite Staters: this bill would make meaningful progress that is urgently needed and we’ve got to keep pushing forward.”
Meanwhile, here in the Granite State, the New Hampshire Association of Realtors (NHAR) concentrated efforts on making sure the state didn’t take a step backward in the forward progress on creating opportunities for new housing development.
“One of NHAR’s priorities this session was to ensure hard-fought housing reforms enacted in 2025 were not undone. Fortunately, the New Hampshire House of Representatives moved swiftly to stop many of these proposals,” said Bob Quinn, NHAR CEO, in a legislative update.
Among repeal targets: Building on unmaintained roads, easing manufactured housing siting, easing parking minimums on new construction, and allowing construction of an accessory dwelling unit.
Quinn said NHAR opposed these repeals, as well as an effort to repeal the state’s Housing Champions program run by the state Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA). The program encourages municipalities to adopt pro-housing zoning and land-use policies by providing access to state grants for infrastructure and development projects.
Money for the program disappeared in the governor’s current state budget, and a legislative proposal would have wiped the program from the law books. But that effort failed — the Housing Champions program remains, though there’s no money in it.
“For housing advocates, it was an important win, even as NHAR and others continue to push for resources that help communities turn pro-housing policies into actual homes,” Quinn said.
One significant piece of pro-development legislation cited by Quinn was SB 564. It prohibits municipalities from placing limits on maximum road length and imposing a numerical cap on the number of housing lots on a dead-end road or street. The bill would also mandate that municipalities must allow utilities to be placed within designated open space or perimeter buffer areas of subdivisions, provided that such areas are not wetlands nor protected shoreline.
Quinn’s legislative assessment was contained in the summer edition of the NH Realtor Magazine. See it here:
Renter legislation opposed
Legislation opposed by a coalition of housing advocates affects renters. HB 1336 would allow landlords to require another month’s rent up front — on top of what they can already collect — for applicants who do not meet certain screening criteria.
Under current law, landlords can require a security deposit equal to one month’s rent, in addition to the first month’s rent (or more) at move-in. HB 1336 adds another cost.
In a letter to the governor urging her to veto HB 1336, housing advocates say the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,024, which means that if the legislation becomes law, qualified renters would potentially need $6,072 to rent the unit.
“New Hampshire is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. Across our state, renters are already struggling to keep up with rising housing costs, low vacancy rates and limited housing choices,” said Nick Taylor, director of Housing Action NH. “At a time when too many Granite Staters are living paycheck to paycheck, HB 1336 would create a significant new financial barrier to accessing housing while doing nothing to address the underlying cause of New Hampshire’s housing challenges: a shortage of homes that people can afford.”
Taylor was also mindful of making sure the state Legislature didn’t reverse on housing policy during its 2026 session.
In a podcast conversation with the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI) Taylor noted that a legislative majority beat back attempts to repeal housing-related gains from previous sessions.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t take a step backwards,” Taylor said.
Rather than big policy decisions, this year’s legislative action focused on measures designed to clarify existing laws and make them easier to implement, according to NHFPI. That included updates to existing laws allowing residential development in commercial areas, technical fixes to help communities comply with new housing requirements and reforms intended to reduce unnecessary delays in condominium development.
Every step forward, according to Taylor, is incremental but important.
“None of these are silver bullets,” Taylor said.
As Granite Staters eye ever-increasing purchase prices for a single-family home, state and federal policy makers wrestle with solutions that create more housing supply. Among them is bipartisan federal legislation on housing that is being held hostage by President Donald Trump’s fixation on a bill that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship with such documents as U.S. passports or birth certificates.
Two New Hampshire cities are among the 10 best-run cities in the country, according to a WalletHub analysis of U.S. communities where residents get the most bang for their taxes. Manchester was rated No. 3, while Nashua was close behind at No. 5., based on a “Quality of Services” score that WalletHub developed using 36 metrics across six key service areas — financial stability, education, health, safety, economy and infrastructure/pollution.
For the fourth consecutive year, New Hampshire took the top spot in a national ranking of child well-being.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved New Hampshire’s spending plan for a large tranche of federal money that will go toward rural health initiatives, state officials announced Thursday.
Hosted by the Granite Outdoor Alliance, an organization set on uniting and advancing the key players in New Hampshire’s outdoor industry, this year’s sold-out Barn Raiser on June 10 reflected the breadth of the outdoor sector, bringing together public officials, business leaders, recreation providers and nonprofit representatives, among other key figures.
A new report says an influx of new Granite Staters is coming primarily from neighboring Massachusetts, and most of them are younger, part of Gen Z, the cohort of people born roughly between 1997 and 2012. But another report says the newbies, like already established residents here, face affordability challenges when it comes to housing and child care.
The recently formed New Hampshire Forum has been whittling down — from 18 to four to one or two — important issues that will be addressed in the 2027 session of the state Legislature.
New Hampshire’s outdoor economy is active and evolving, but the systems that support it have not kept pace, according to a new report by the Granite Outdoor Alliance. “Grounded Growth” was culled from three roundtables hosted by industry businesses around the state where 62 stakeholders from business, manufacturing, conservation, workforce and the public sector discussed challenges and opportunities shaping New Hampshire’s outdoor economy.
New Hampshire is feeling some economic indigestion at the start of the summer season, and the main culprit is gas. Six in 10 (61%) of respondents to a new University of New Hampshire polls are worried about the current and future price of gas, and a clear majority put the blame on President Donald Trump.
