The ‘Golden Age of Manchester’: The New Hampshire City Consistently Topping the Hottest U.S. Housing Markets

Last year, Christy Manley was ready to trade in her bucolic life in rural New Hampshire for a busier one in Manchester, the state’s largest city. She sold her Langdon, NH, home in just three days, figuring that, as an all-cash buyer, she would find another one in the bigger city quickly.

She was wrong.

She was outbid multiple times in her hunt for a turnkey, reasonably priced condo or single-family house. Homes in Manchester, about an hour northwest of Boston, were selling before she could even get in for a showing. The search took so long that she had to put her belongings in storage and move into her friend’s guest room.

“I had no idea it was going to be this tough,” says Manley, who works in addiction recovery. “The market is absolutely insane here.”

What Manley didn’t realize is that she was looking for a home in the nation’s hottest real estate market. The Manchester metropolitan area first nabbed the No. 1 spot on the Realtor.com® monthly hottest markets list in March 2021. The Southern New Hampshire city has held that top position 22 times since and been near the top for the rest as locals and out-of-state buyers have competed for homes there.

So how did the housing market of a struggling, former textile town in New England become one of the most desirable in the country?

The city of more than 115,000 residents offers the one thing that most homebuyers are desperately seeking: affordability. Manchester boasts lower home prices than nearby Boston, and New Hampshire has no state income or sales taxes.

“It’s the golden age of Manchester,” says Shaun MacDonald, a real estate agent at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Verani Realty in nearby Nashua, NH. “It’s been a bastion of affordability in New Hampshire and for people migrating from Massachusetts.”

The typical home in the Manchester metro area was listed for a record high of $572,200 in February, according to the most recent Realtor.com data. That’s about 40% less than the median list price of $854,450 in Boston, which is within commuting distance.

Manchester metro prices rose roughly 1.8% year over year and represented a 51.2% increase over the past four years, according to Realtor.com data. The number of home listings was also down 1.8% year over year in February and 58.3% from February 2020.

“Even though our prices are significantly higher than they ever were, they’re still lower than the competing states,” says local real estate broker Pamela Young, of eXp Realty. “Prices are a lot cheaper than Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York.”

About three-quarters of the homes for sale in the Manchester metro area are going into bidding wars, Young says. But unlike during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they may sell for only $10,000 or $20,000 over the asking price—instead of $60,000 or $80,000.

“It’s a tough buyer’s market,” says Young. “We just have very, very low [housing] inventory, and we have a lot of buyers.”

Where are Manchester homebuyers coming from?

Bostonians make up about a third of potential buyers browsing home listings in the Manchester metro area, according to Realtor.com data. About 21% hail from the New York metro area with 3% from nearby Concord, NH.

About 80% of the homes MacDonald is selling in New Hampshire are to folks leaving Massachusetts who are seeking more affordable homes on larger lots. And since many people are now working remotely, at least for part of the week, some buyers are more amenable to living in Manchester and commuting to Boston.

The housing stock is also improving. Some of the old mill buildings along the Merrimack River have been turned into luxury lofts for sale and rent, says MacDonald.

“There’s a lot of money coming into Manchester. A lot of investors are coming in and tearing down buildings and rebuilding them,” says MacDonald. On the main commercial strip of Elm Street, “there are a lot of good restaurants coming in. It’s got a lot of nice bars moving in.”

That competition from out-of-state buyers made it more difficult for Manley to secure a home in the city. It took eight months before she closed on a three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom house built in the late 1800s with “a cute little sunroom in the front,” says Manley.

“I love it. I love Manchester, the people, the community, the shopping,” says Manley. Her long search was ultimately worth it. “The house I ended up with is absolutely perfect for me.”

Manchester offers more than just affordable homes for sale

Manchester is also home to several schools, including the University of New Hampshire at Manchester and Southern New Hampshire University. Residents can take in shows at The Palace Theatre or the SNHU Arena or boat or fish in Lake Massabesic.

There are also plenty of jobs in the area. The unemployment rate was 2.5% in January—significantly lower than the 3.7% national rate in the same month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This helped boost the median household income in the city. It was $74,040 between 2018 and 2022, just under the national of $75,149, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Manchester also boasts some strong comedic chops. Famous residents include Adam Sandler, who graduated from Manchester Central High School in 1984; Sarah Silverman, who graduated from Derryfield School in 1989; and Seth Myers, who graduated from Manchester High School West in 1992.

The two brothers who founded the fast-food chain McDonalds, Richard and Maurice McDonald, were also born in the city.

However, the city has had its struggles.

In the 1830s, the Amoskeag Co. developed the city’s textile mills, which boomed in the early 1910s, according to Jeffrey Barraclough, executive director of the Manchester Historic Association.

The company struggled a decade later and closed in the 1930s. New companies took over the mills, but the city was hurt again in the 1970s and 1980s when many manufacturing jobs disappeared or moved overseas.

More recently, Manchester received a C-minus rating for crime and safety on the website Niche.

“People viewed Manchester negatively in the past because it had higher crime rates,” says MacDonald. “But because of that, property values have been low—really low.”

Those lower property values aren’t so low anymore, though, as the city’s housing market continues to bask in the national spotlight.

“The city has gone through a few series of declines and rebirths,” says Barraclough. “Over the last few decades, there has been another resurgence of new companies. There are a lot of new businesses downtown.”

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