The 10 Best Places To Buy A House In New Hampshire For 2024


The best places to buy a house in New Hampshire are Lancaster and Gorham for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Editor’s Note: This is not investment advice, and we are not financial advisers.

Suppose real estate is the most significant investment a majority of people make in their lifetime. In that case, it’s best to understand the places in New Hampshire with best potential return on investment.

After working in real estate adjacent roles for over a decade, I had the hypothesis that the best place to buy for a return on investment would be up-and-coming cities. Smaller cities where crime might be high now, but people still move to.

To test my hypothesis, we are going to look at places in New Hampshire that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average, and crime rates are higher than average.

In everyday terms, these might be “deals”. The best deal in New Hampshire at the moment according to Saturday Night Science? That would be Lancaster.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Best Places To Buy A Home In New Hampshire For 2024

  1. Lancaster
  2. Gorham
  3. Bristol
  4. Enfield
  5. North Conway
  6. Hampton Beach
  7. Henniker
  8. Meredith
  9. Peterborough
  10. Jaffrey

Best Places To Buy A House In New Hampshire Map

The methodology that wen’t into this can be a bit complicated, so we’ll break it down for you in as much detail as we can below.

For more New Hampshire reading:

The 10 Best Cities To Buy A House In New Hampshire For 2024

1. Lancaster

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,260
Median Home Price: $272,735
Population Change: 9.1%
Home Price Change: 3.7%
More on Lancaster: Crime | Real Estate

2. Gorham

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,043
Median Home Price: $227,174
Population Change: 3.4%
Home Price Change: 4.1%
More on Gorham: Crime | Real Estate

3. Bristol

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,095
Median Home Price: $378,652
Population Change: 5.6%
Home Price Change: 8.6%
More on Bristol: Crime | Real Estate

4. Enfield

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,079
Median Home Price: $397,219
Population Change: 4.4%
Home Price Change: 8.2%
More on Enfield: Crime | Real Estate

5. North Conway

North Conway, NH

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,079
Median Home Price: $455,697
Population Change: -13.1%
Home Price Change: -1.7%
More on North Conway: Real Estate

6. Hampton Beach

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,650
Median Home Price: $579,361
Population Change: 6.9%
Home Price Change: 9.2%
More on Hampton Beach: Real Estate

7. Henniker

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,741
Median Home Price: $418,789
Population Change: 2.2%
Home Price Change: 4.6%
More on Henniker: Crime | Real Estate

8. Meredith

Meredith, NH

Source: Flickr User CappiT | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,758
Median Home Price: $647,723
Population Change: 12.3%
Home Price Change: 6.3%
More on Meredith: Crime | Real Estate

9. Peterborough

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,247
Median Home Price: $406,820
Population Change: -4.8%
Home Price Change: 11.2%
More on Peterborough: Crime | Real Estate

10. Jaffrey

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,036
Median Home Price: $365,172
Population Change: 7.9%
Home Price Change: 10.0%
More on Jaffrey: Crime | Real Estate

Methodology: How do you determine the best places to buy a home in New Hampshire for 2024?

We were in real estate for almost five years and have worked on this site for another 9. Suffice it to say we’ve put a lot of thought into finding an excellent place to buy a home.

So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we’d approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in New Hampshire. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in New Hampshire with undervalued homes relative to pent-up demand using Saturday Night Science.

To do that, we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2018-2022 and compared it to the previous vintage. Specifically, we used the following criteria:

  • Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
  • Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
  • Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It’s still kinda cheap)

We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still “cheap” for New Hampshire with the following caveats:

So of the 0 cities and towns in New Hampshire, only 47 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.

We then ranked each place from 1 to 47 for the above criteria, with 1 being the best. We averaged the rankings to create a “best place to buy” index, with the place having the lowest index being the best.

Turns out that Lancaster is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Granite State.

Summary: The Best Places To Purchase A House In New Hampshire for 2024

There’s our analysis of the best places to buy a house in New Hampshire. And, to be clear, we aren’t necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.

In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 0 places in the state.

The best cities to buy a house in New Hampshire are Lancaster, Gorham, Bristol, Enfield, North Conway, Hampton Beach, Henniker, Meredith, Peterborough, and Jaffrey.

So if we’d could rent or buy in these cities, we’d definitely buy.

For more New Hampshire reading, check out:

Best Places To Buy A Home In New Hampshire

Rank City Population Median Home Price Population Change Home Price Increase
1 Lancaster 2,260 $272,735 9.1% 3.7%
2 Gorham 2,043 $227,174 3.4% 4.1%
3 Bristol 2,095 $378,652 5.6% 8.6%
4 Enfield 2,079 $397,219 4.4% 8.2%
5 North Conway 2,079 $455,697 -13.1% -1.7%
6 Hampton Beach 2,650 $579,361 6.9% 9.2%
7 Henniker 2,741 $418,789 2.2% 4.6%
8 Meredith 2,758 $647,723 12.3% 6.3%
9 Peterborough 2,247 $406,820 -4.8% 11.2%
10 Jaffrey 3,036 $365,172 7.9% 10.0%
11 Tilton Northfield 3,035 $248,392 5.8% 3.7%
12 Goffstown 3,028 $437,915 7.1% 8.7%
13 Epping 2,754 $470,761 -1.9% 8.3%
14 Wolfeboro 2,813 $571,965 -15.2% 1.1%
15 Raymond 4,006 $428,699 6.0% 8.0%
16 Conway 3,847 $403,610 -4.5% 6.5%
17 Farmington 3,722 $355,237 -5.0% 8.7%
18 Plymouth 4,428 $325,690 2.5% 9.3%
19 Littleton 4,587 $323,869 -0.8% 7.5%
20 Pinardville 4,851 $322,192 0.0% 5.3%
21 East Merrimack 4,643 $343,468 0.7% 16.8%
22 Suncook 5,235 $371,259 4.5% 16.8%
23 Hooksett 5,268 $459,819 -7.1% 6.3%
24 Newport 5,228 $279,094 -2.0% 10.5%
25 Newmarket 5,829 $475,693 3.7% 7.1%
26 South Hooksett 5,808 $459,287 -1.7% 9.6%
27 Hudson 7,003 $470,939 3.7% 5.8%
28 Milford 8,530 $439,699 1.1% 8.2%
29 Franklin 8,746 $319,833 -0.2% 7.3%
30 Hanover 8,234 $908,412 -6.6% 10.2%
31 Exeter 9,918 $530,210 0.1% 7.9%
32 Hampton 10,050 $560,109 1.5% 7.1%
33 Berlin 9,485 $169,746 -2.3% 8.5%
34 Durham 10,789 $616,892 -7.1% 10.8%
35 Somersworth 11,994 $380,908 0.3% 8.2%
36 Londonderry 12,143 $527,708 1.6% 7.6%
37 Claremont 13,018 $232,691 0.5% 11.7%
38 Lebanon 14,515 $398,820 1.4% 8.5%
39 Laconia 16,898 $387,698 0.7% 6.2%
40 Portsmouth 22,138 $672,711 1.1% 8.5%
41 Keene 22,907 $303,115 -0.3% 7.5%
42 Derry 23,027 $439,869 -2.3% 6.1%
43 Rochester 32,573 $352,607 0.8% 8.3%
44 Dover 32,849 $466,477 0.8% 9.2%
45 Concord 44,049 $379,611 1.1% 8.2%
46 Nashua 90,943 $437,854 0.3% 8.4%
47 Manchester 115,037 $383,709 0.3% 8.5%
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.