While there are some signs of downward pressure on record-high prices, homes in New Hampshire were increasingly harder to afford through 2022.
The so-called affordability index in the state’s four largest population counties started the year with higher affordability numbers than what they finished the year with, according to newly released data, leaving them almost a third less affordable in 2022 than they were in 2021.
The state’s overall affordability index for a house was 73 in December, 70 for all of 2022, 32 percent less affordable than 2021, according to the NH Association of Realtors. For a condo, the affordability index was 86 in December, 90 in all of 2022, 35.7 percent less affordable than 2021.
The Housing Affordability Index measures whether or not a typical family earns enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a typical home at the national and regional levels based on the most recent price and income data. A value of 100 means that a family with the median income has exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home. The lower the value, the greater the struggle to afford the mortgage.
According to NHAR data, median prices for both single-family homes and residential condominiums/townhouses reached historic all-time highs in 2022. Homes peaked at $460,000, while condos peaked at $350,000 in May 2022. That started to trend downward through the second half of the year.
In December, the Realtors reported that the median price of a single-family home stood at $525,000, while the price of a condo was $361,383. The median price of a house in New Hampshire for all of 2022 was $440,000, 11.4 percent over the 2021 median. The median price of a condo in 2022 was $345,000, up 19.4 percent from 2021.
According to a compilation of residential real estate data from ATTOM, homes in Hillsborough County were 28 percent less affordable in 2022 versus 2021, while Merrimack County was 29 percent less affordable, Strafford County 31 percent less affordable, and Rockingham County 32 percent less affordable. — PAUL BRIAND
