NH rents rise significantly more than U.S. average
Jun. 9—PORTSMOUTH — Rents in New Hampshire have shot up an average 45% since the pandemic, compared to 25% nationally, fueled by a lack of housing construction and few vacant apartments to rent, an economist said.
The state hasn't experienced a spike in building permits as seen elsewhere, has the fifth-lowest unemployment rate and the second oldest population — a collection of forces that has helped produce record home prices and rent spikes for many.
"If I step back from a national point of view, I've never seen a market like this with so many of the different dynamics," economist Ali Wolf told more than 200 people attending a housing conference Friday at The Venue at Portwalk Place.
"What we're seeing in permits, what we're seeing in the age, what we're seeing in the vacancy rate, what we're seeing across the board with rents," said Wolf, chief economist for Zonda, which provides residential construction data.
New Hampshire last month hit a new all-time high for a statewide median price of $525,000 for a single-family home and a record $445,000 for a condominium, according to the New Hampshire Realtors.
"It's still very difficult for people to achieve home ownership who aren't currently home owners and affordability is at historic lows," said Rob Dapice, executive director and CEO of New Hampshire Housing, which organized the conference.
Some advocated for state legislators to take more action to make it easier for developers to get projects approved by local land-use boards.
Legislators are responsible for the whole state, according to Max Latona, executive director of the Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College.
"That's where I think we need to appeal to them," Latona said. "You need to look out for the whole state and not just for individual communities and make decisions that might relieve some of this restrictiveness."
Joanna Kelley, Portsmouth's assistant mayor and a city councilor, said "there's a moral balance" between considering a project's effect on an individual property and the benefits of providing shelter for others.
She urged more investments in infrastructure in communities to help developers build more housing or risk seeing those communities dying off.
"I'm not going to raise my children in a dead, dying, old state," Kelley said.
Joe Tamposi, a third-generation real estate developer, said trying to collaborate with town and city officials sometimes helps move a project along.
"I wish I could tell you that we had a secret sauce for how to engage the community properly," Tamposi said.
"The best way to do it is just to be consistent in your messaging and get your points out there repeatedly," he said.
Counter neighbors' worries over traffic by talking about the project's traffic study that shows little impact on the roads, he said.
Wolf said multi-family housing projects in the state are taking 3.5 months longer to build than they did in 2018.
Vacancy housing rental rates that were 3% in 2014 are now 0.8%.
Nationwide, they were 6% 10 years ago and the same today, she said.
Wolf said a state with the nation's second-oldest population should try to get on the radar of young people.
Two things to attract them are "interesting job opportunities" and "reasonable housing options," she said.
The latter is "actually working against this state," Wolf said.
