NH home prices buck spring-to-summer trend

For the first time in a decade the median dropped from May to June

In a departure from a 10-year trend, the June median price for a single-family home in New Hampshire dropped from what it was in May.

Analysts at the New Hampshire Association of Realtors (NHAR) keep an eye on that May-to-June number because it represents a transition into what is typically the busiest season for residential real estate transactions.

This is the first time in a decade that the median actually dropped from May to June.

From May-June 2026 to May-June 2021, the single-family median price rose an average of $9,660 from one month to the other.

It stayed the same in 2022 — $460,000 in May and $460,000 again in June.

But then, during the post-COVID boom, that May-to-June average from 2023 to 2026 ballooned to $26,000.

So it’s notable that this year, for the first time in a decade, the May median was $575,500 and the June median slipped slightly to $575,000. And, incidentally, that median price over the last 10 years? It’s more than doubled. In fact, it’s almost a 132% increase.

A single month is not enough to fully mark a trend, but Joshua Greenwald, NHAR president and owner/broker of Greenwald Realty in Keene, said the slight drop in the median price from May to June makes him “cautiously optimistic that maybe we’re on to something, which is going to eventually solve our inventory and affordability issue.”

In May, when the median price hit an initial record of $579,900 (then adjusted down to $575,500 after late arriving sales were figured into the May median), there was concern that the prices might be surging toward $600,000.

“So maybe, maybe that was the peak of the mountain,” Greenwald said.

There’s no guarantee that the prices will begin to drop, especially through the summer selling season, but Greenwald doesn’t mind a bit of a break in the month-over-month price increases that have been going on for the last 77 months.

“I don’t mind a nice plateau,” he said.

Because of the limited supply of homes on the market these days (around 2,500 last month), even a few sales outside the median can skew the median. NHAR saw this with the May results, having to readjust its preliminary median of $579,900 down by almost $4,000 after lower-priced sales recorded for May were put into the median calculation. If there are a lot of $1 million plus sales in the Seacoast area, it can skew the results the other way.

One month does not a trend make.

“If we get a couple months of decreases, then I’ll start to recognize a trend,” Greenwald said. “If we see July, if we see August, then, yes, I think we’re starting to see something, where maybe we’re going to start to see prices level off and decrease hopefully, and then inventory levels will catch up.”

Up and down across the state

The NHAR reported in a social media post that the median sales price of a single-family home increased in 13 of New Hampshire’s 15 largest municipalities during the first half of 2026.

NHAR said the strongest gains were in Rochester, Goffstown, Nashua, Bedford and Laconia, where median prices climbed by more than 8% in the last six months. Concord and Keene posted increases of 7%.

The two outliers among the state’s largest municipalities were Londonderry and Portsmouth.

Londonderry, with a median single-family price of $770,000, saw a 2.2% decline in pricing over the six month period.

Portsmouth, which had the highest median sales price among the state’s largest municipalities at $822,000, recorded a 12% decline from the first half of 2025.

It’s interesting to note that among the municipalities the highest median price belongs to Bedford at $841,000.

Prices in Portsmouth are a contributing factor to the Seacoast Board of Realtors June report that its single-family median of $900,000 is 2.9% ahead of last year and the third straight month that the median sale price has reached $900,000 or more.

The Seacoast board takes its data from 13 sample communities: Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, North Hampton, Newmarket, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook and Stratham.

“Inventory continues to make a slow recovery, and this has given buyers more choices and more time to negotiate,” said Seacoast board president Ryan Kaplan, a broker with the Envision Group at Compass.

A break for renters

Other real estate related topics from June include Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s veto of a measure from the 2026 legislative session that would have added another upfront cost for Granite Staters who rent a place to live.

HB 1136, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, would allow landlords to require another month’s rent as a security deposit from applicants who do not meet specified approval criteria, such as a credit score over 650 or a landlord reference.

In her veto message, the Republican governor said: “While improving housing access is essential, requiring these prospective renters to provide potentially thousands of dollars more than current law upfront would impede access to housing. Moreover, the bill’s language is not clear on how long a landlord can keep those funds and allows landlords discretion to unfairly withhold tenants’ deposits.”

The veto was hailed by housing advocates, among them Nick Taylor, director of Housing Action NH, who said: “We’re grateful to Governor Ayotte for vetoing HB 1336, which would have made renting more expensive. At a time when New Hampshire families are facing rising costs and limited rental options, adding new costs would have moved our state in the wrong direction.”

A July 7 study from WalletHub lists Nashua as the 11th and Manchester as the 23rd best places in the country to be a renter.

A New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute study says Granite State renters are “cost burdened” as nearly half of them spend more than 30% of their income on rent. With a median monthly rent of $1,558 statewide and even higher costs in areas like Hillsborough County (median $1,714), many households face severe financial strain that leaves little room for other basic necessities, according to the NHFPI analysis from 2024.

But WalletHub considers more than just cost in its review.

“At first glance, New Hampshire’s strong performance may seem surprising given that many renters across the state are considered cost-burdened. However, our rankings evaluate much more than rent prices and income alone. Nashua ranks 11th overall and Manchester ranks 23rd because they combine relatively strong affordability with solid quality-of-life factors such as healthy job markets, high city satisfaction, good public schools, and low crime rates,” said WalletHub analyst Chris Lupo.

“In Nashua, the typical renter spends around 21% of annual household income on rent, while in Manchester it’s around 23%,” he added. “In addition, about 20% of renter households in Nashua and Manchester are severely cost-burdened, meaning they spend at least half of their income on housing. Most of the cities in our study have a higher share of cost-burdened renters.”