New Hampshire Real Estate Markets
Zero state income tax + strong migration + Boston-metro spillover. P/I 3.84, cap rate proxy 4.3%, median home $365,785. 0.00% income tax on wages/rental (2025 interest-dividends repeal completes the zero-tax status); 1.77% property tax is the trade-off.
Investor Profile
Price-to-Income
3.8
Census ACS
Rent-to-Income
25.4%
HUD + ACS
Cap Rate Proxy
4.3%
HUD + ACS
Net Migration
0.29%
IRS SOI
Permits / 1K
3.4
Census BPS
Unemployment
4.1%
BLS
Demographics & Income
Median HHI
$96,373
Census ACS
Vacancy Rate
12.5%
Census ACS
Rent-Burdened
44.9%
% of renters paying 30%+ of income toward rent
Census ACS
Investor Climate
Rent control
1031 exchange
Deposit cap
Explore 2 metros across New Hampshire
Hover any county to see its metroTap any county to see its metro
Census ACS · FHFA · BLS · HUD · IRS2 metros in New Hampshire. Click to view full market hub.
| # | Metro | Population | HPI 5yr Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester-Nashua, NH | 0.4M | 61.6% |
| 2 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 4.9M | 34.0% |
Where New Hampshire sits on the distress curve
Composite index built from federal GSE loan data covering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family loans. Weighted 40% serious delinquency, 20% entrenched stress, 20% forbearance share, 20% REO inventory. Useful for spotting markets where distressed inventory is building before price effects show up. Read the full methodology →
Source: FHFA Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report · 2025Q4
See all 51 states rankedNew Hampshire is the Northeast's quiet tax-haven — zero state income tax on wages and rental income and structurally-positive migration, paired with the region's second-highest property tax. Price-to-income 3.84, cap rate proxy 4.3%, median home $365,785, across 1,387,834 residents and 2 metros. 1.77% effective property tax — among the country's highest. 0.00% state income tax on wages and rental income (the Hall-style interest and dividends tax was fully repealed in 2025, completing the zero-income-tax status).
The FHFA HPI is up 61.6% over five years — cohort-leading — and 5.4% last year. Builders pulled 4,652 permits TTM at 3.4 per 1,000 residents — low. Net migration at +0.29% is strongly positive — the cohort's best Northeast migration story. Unemployment sits at 4.1% with median household income at $96,373.
The one published metro carries most of the state's economy. Manchester-Nashua ($386K median, 4.30% cap, 423K pop) is the anchor — southern New Hampshire's commuter relationship with Boston, finance, insurance (Fidelity), healthcare. Portsmouth-Dover and the seacoast towns aggregate into the Boston-Cambridge-Newton MSA that straddles the MA-NH border.
Against Massachusetts, New Hampshire's zero-income-tax + Boston-commuter access is the structural arbitrage — MA residents moving 30-60 miles north drop their state tax to zero while keeping labor-market access. Against Vermont, NH has dramatically lower income tax and stronger migration. Against Maine, NH has higher property tax but the income-tax advantage compounds for high-earner investors.
Operating environment is moderate. 30-day eviction timeline, no rent control, 1-month deposit cap, 72.4% homeownership, 12.5% vacancy. Insurance averages $1,135/yr. 0.00% state income tax.
So what does an investor do?
- Cash flow: Manchester-Nashua is the one target, and the math works through the tax structure. A 4.30% cap rate at $386K entry, post-tax, beats many nominally-higher-cap metros in 5%+ income-tax states. Model property tax explicitly — the 1.77% line is the biggest line-item drag and varies meaningfully by town.
- Appreciation: Manchester-Nashua carries the cohort's best appreciation math, driven by sustained Boston-metro spillover migration. The 61.6% five-year HPI leads the Northeast peer set. Southern NH towns within commute distance to Boston (Salem, Derry, Windham) are the strongest submarkets.
- Out-of-state: New Hampshire is the single best tax-structure state in the Northeast for high-earner investors. The zero-income-tax + Boston-access + positive-migration combination is rare — the trade-off is paying the region's second-highest property tax. Compare directly against Pennsylvania — NH wins on income tax direction and migration, PA wins on entry price and metro count.
Cap rate measures a property's annual net operating income as a percentage of its purchase price or current market value, assuming an all-cash purchase.
Read definition →Price-to-income ratio is median-home-price divided by median-household-income—a measure of housing affordability.
Read definition →Fair Market Rent (FMR) is HUD's annual estimate of what a household must pay for gross rent — rent plus tenant-paid utilities — on a privately-owned, decent, safe unit in a specific market area. FMRs are published each fall at huduser.gov and set the ceiling for Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher payment calculations.
Read definition →A building permit is a government authorization to construct a new residential or commercial structure, and the monthly count of permits issued across the U.S. functions as a leading economic indicator that signals where housing supply is heading months before any new unit is completed.
Read definition →The percentage of time a rental property sits empty and produces no income, calculated as vacant units divided by total units — the silent profit killer in rental investing.
Read definition →Homeownership rate is the percentage of occupied housing units whose residents own — rather than rent — the property. It measures the split between owner-occupants and renters in a given geography.
Read definition →