Most Expensive Places To Live In New Hampshire For 2020

The 10 Most Expensive Places To Live In New Hampshire For 2020

1. Durham

Durham is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,638 at the 2010 census. Durham is home to the University of New Hampshire.

The median income in Durham comes in at $47,300 and the median home value is $342,900 for 2020.

2. Newmarket

Newmarket is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 8,936 at the 2010 census. Some residents are students and employees at the nearby University of New Hampshire in Durham.

The median income in Newmarket comes in at $67,299 and the median home value is $241,100 for 2020.

3. Portsmouth

Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, in the United States. It is the only city in the county, but only the fourth-largest community, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census. As of 2016 the estimated population was 21,485. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination, Portsmouth was the home of the Strategic Air Command's Pease Air Force Base, later converted to Portsmouth International Airport at Pease with limited commercial air service.

The median income in Portsmouth comes in at $78,027 and the median home value is $397,400 for 2020.

4. Manchester

Manchester is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 109,565, and its estimated 2016 population was 110,506. It is one of two seats of Hillsborough County, the state of New Hampshire's most populous county. Manchester is located near the northern end of the Northeast megalopolis, along the banks of the Merrimack River-which divides the city into eastern and western sections. It was first named by the merchant and inventor Samuel Blodgett. Blodget's vision was to create a great industrial center similar to that of the original Manchester in England, which was the world's first industrialized city.

The median income in Manchester comes in at $58,227 and the median home value is $217,100 for 2020.

5. Hanover

Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007. "This just might be the best college town," read the headline of a story in the January-February 2017 issue of Yankee.

The median income in Hanover comes in at $103,558 and the median home value is $576,700 for 2020.

6. Nashua

Nashua is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,494, making it the second-largest city in the state after Manchester. As of 2016 the population had risen to an estimated 87,882.

The median income in Nashua comes in at $73,022 and the median home value is $257,700 for 2020.

7. Exeter

Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. Home to the Phillips Exeter Academy, a private university-preparatory school, Exeter is situated where the Exeter River feeds the tidal Squamscott River.

The median income in Exeter comes in at $66,604 and the median home value is $228,000 for 2020.

8. Milford

Milford is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States, on the Souhegan River. The population was 15,115 at the 2010 census. It is the retail and manufacturing center of a six-town area known informally as the Souhegan Valley.

The median income in Milford comes in at $66,270 and the median home value is $228,700 for 2020.

9. Hampton

Hampton is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,976 at the 2010 census. Located beside the Atlantic Ocean, Hampton is home to Hampton Beach, a summer tourist destination.

The median income in Hampton comes in at $92,688 and the median home value is $358,300 for 2020.

10. Derry

Derry is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 33,109 at the 2010 census. Although it is a town and not a city, Derry is the fourth most-populous community in the state. The town's nickname, "Spacetown", derives from the fact that Derry is the birthplace of Alan Shepard, the first astronaut from the United States in space. Derry was also for a time the home of the poet Robert Frost and his family.

The median income in Derry comes in at $63,554 and the median home value is $217,300 for 2020.

How We Determined The Most Expensive Places To Live In The Granite State For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in New Hampshire to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 25 places in New Hampshire that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the highest cost of living in New Hampshire according to the data is Durham. You can download the data here.