Record construction, sweeping zoning reforms, and a growing backlash are colliding in a state where 85 percent of households can’t afford the typical house.
By Granite State Report
Concord, NH – Here is the math that defines New Hampshire’s housing crisis in a single sentence: to afford the median-priced single-family home in the Granite State, a household now needs to earn $182,000 a year. Only 15 percent of New Hampshire families make that much. The median sale price hit $535,000 in 2025—a 122 percent increase over the past decade, after adjusting for inflation—while household incomes rose just 19 percent over the same period.
Those numbers, drawn from a recent New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority report, explain why housing has become the issue that unites business groups and social service agencies, Republican governors and Democratic legislators, young couples in Concord and employers in the North Country. Everyone agrees the state has a housing crisis. What they cannot agree on is how to fix it—and whether the most ambitious reforms in state history are a solution or a new set of problems.
A Market Running on Empty
In the early 2010s, New Hampshire had between 8,000 and 13,000 homes available for sale at any given time. Today, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors, roughly 1,600 are on the market statewide. The rental picture is even grimmer: the statewide vacancy rate sits at 0.5 percent, meaning that if 10 percent of the state’s lower-income renters wanted to move, they would have about 350 units to choose from—and roughly a 5 percent chance of finding one they could afford.
The state’s own Statewide Housing Needs Assessment estimates that New Hampshire needs 88,364 new housing units by 2040 to reach a balanced market. As of the latest data, the state is about 29 percent of the way there. In 2025, more than 5,800 housing units were permitted—the highest number since 2006—but that still fell roughly 7,000 units short of where the state needs to be for its first five-year window.
The consequences reach far beyond the housing market itself. Employers across every industry report that they cannot recruit or retain workers because there is nowhere for those workers to live. The Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire, the state’s chamber of commerce, has made housing its top policy priority, a position shared by hospitals, manufacturers, tech firms, and the hospitality industry alike.
The Most Ambitious Year in State History
Governor Kelly Ayotte called 2025 the most ambitious year for new housing laws in New Hampshire’s history, and the numbers support the claim. The legislature passed sixteen pro-housing bills, fundamentally reshaping the relationship between the state and its 234 municipalities on land use.
The marquee reforms included a law requiring towns and cities to allow detached accessory dwelling units—essentially small second homes on existing lots—removing the previous requirement for an interior door connecting the units. Another bill required municipalities to permit multi-family residential development in commercial zones, opening the door for mixed-use projects that could revitalize downtowns and repurpose vacant commercial buildings. A third addressed the state’s vast network of unmaintained Class VI roads, removing local barriers to development along them.
For housing advocates, the reforms were a breakthrough. For decades, New Hampshire’s housing shortage had been reinforced by a patchwork of local zoning codes that effectively prohibited affordable construction. According to data from the Saint Anselm College Zoning Atlas, roughly 66 municipalities will not allow a single-family home to be built on less than 1.5 acres. Multi-family developments of five or more units are allowed on less than half of the state’s buildable land, and the majority require a public hearing for approval. Just 13 percent of buildable land is zoned to allow homes on small lots with modest frontage—the kind of postage-stamp parcels where starter homes might pencil out.
The Backlash Arrives
The reforms were barely on the books before the opposition organized. More than a dozen bills filed for the 2026 legislative session seek to roll back the new zoning changes, framed as a defense of local control—a concept with deep roots in a state where town meeting still governs hundreds of communities.
Rep. Len Turcotte, a Barrington Republican and former chairman of the House Municipal and County Government Committee, has traveled the state speaking to towns opposed to the mandates. He has argued that the state overstepped by dictating local zoning policy, and says his audiences have been nearly unanimous in their frustration. The New Hampshire Municipal Association has been equally vocal, contending that the legislature imposed mandates without a collaborative process and without providing the infrastructure funding—particularly water and sewer capacity—that new housing requires.
The opposition crosses party lines. Rep. David Preece, a Manchester Democrat, has argued that the housing shortage should be addressed through increased state and federal investment, not state mandates on local zoning. Some towns, he says, simply lack the infrastructure to absorb the development the new laws would allow.
Housing advocates, however, are betting the backlash will fail. A statewide poll conducted by YouGov for Housing Action NH found that 52 percent of voters consider housing costs one of the top issues facing the state, and 76 percent say the crisis is affecting them personally—preventing them from affording basic needs, starting a family, or saving for retirement. Voters expressed a preference for candidates who vote to build more housing and work across party lines to do it.
Zoning Reform Without the Checkbook
If there is one criticism that bridges the gap between housing advocates and reform skeptics, it is this: the state has been willing to change zoning rules but far less willing to spend money. The 2025 legislative session ended with what Housing Action NH called progress on regulatory reform alongside a disappointing lack of financial investment.
The legislature rejected a proposal to double funding for the state’s Affordable Housing Fund from $5 million to $10 million. The budget did not add money for the Housing Champions Program, which incentivizes towns to overhaul their zoning codes through grants. The previous budget had provided $25 million for the Affordable Housing Fund, $10 million for InvestNH, $10 million for homelessness and shelter programs, and $5.25 million for Housing Champions—numbers that were not matched in the current cycle.
The Housing Champions program, despite its modest funding, has shown measurable results. The state’s 28 designated Housing Champion communities accounted for nearly half of all new housing permits. But without sustained state investment, advocates worry that zoning reform alone will not be enough to close the gap—particularly for housing affordable to lower-income residents and essential workers. Only 39 rental homes are affordable and available for every 100 extremely low-income households in New Hampshire, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The state needs 25,000 more affordable homes for that population alone.
The Ground Shifts Under Every Town
For all the political tension, there are early signs that the reform strategy is having an effect. Municipalities collectively made 59 liberalizing zoning changes from mid-2024 to mid-2025, outnumbering the 13 restrictive changes. Fifteen of those changes were classified as significant. One hundred twenty-nine municipalities now allow detached ADUs, more than half of all jurisdictions. And housing permits hit their highest level in nearly two decades.
But the deeper structural challenge remains: New Hampshire is a state where decisions about what gets built and where are scattered across hundreds of local communities, each with its own zoning board, its own politics, and its own definition of what the neighborhood should look like. Aligning those local incentives with a statewide need for tens of thousands of new homes is the kind of problem that does not yield to a single legislative session, no matter how ambitious.
In the meantime, young families are making the math work however they can. In Concord, Madeline Ables and Trevor Jackson recently closed on a two-story home near downtown—a house they love, even though it needs work. They painted the kitchen cabinets sage green and hung pictures in every room. They know they are among the lucky ones. For the 85 percent of New Hampshire households who cannot afford the median home, the question is not whether the state’s reforms are moving in the right direction. The question is whether they are moving fast enough.
Sources: NH Housing Finance Authority, NH Association of Realtors, NH Dept. of Business and Economic Affairs, NH Fiscal Policy Institute, Concord Monitor, Valley News, NH Business Review, NHPR, NH Bulletin, Saint Anselm College Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice, National Low Income Housing Coalition, and Housing Action NH/YouGov polling.
