In 2025, more than 5,800 housing units were constructed in New Hampshire, the highest number since 2006, according to a new report from the state Department of Business and Economic Affairs. But despite this recent high, the report said the state has met only about 80% of its building goal between 2020 and 2025, which aims to balance the housing market by 2040.
In 2024, municipalities issued permits for 5,822 housing units. “[Assuming all permitted units were constructed in 2025,” the report said, “New Hampshire has added 25,688 housing units since 2020.” But a 2023 assessment from NH Housing said the state needed to build 32,704 housing units during that 5-year period. That would keep it on track for its 2040 goal, which calls for building 88,364 additional units between 2020 and 2040.
According to the department, 2025’s pace was only a marginal increase compared to previous years.
“We had a higher level this year, and I'm not meaning like thousands and thousands more, but it was higher this year than in the past 20 years,” said Heather Shank, director of the department’s Division of Planning and Community Development.
The state has added 4,000 housing units or more every year since 2018, according to the report.
Shank said this construction has not been spread evenly throughout the state.
“Larger communities, those that have the most infrastructure . . . produce the highest number of housing every year,” she said. “But there have been additional smaller communities that have been very pro-housing that have produced a lot of units as well, such as Lebanon or Portsmouth.”
The report found that just over 20 towns and cities, where nearly half of the state’s population lives, built nearly two thirds of the new housing in 2025. Most of the new development was concentrated in the Southern Tier or the Seacoast, with Dover, Londonderry, Manchester, Rochester and Portsmouth issuing the most building permits in 2024.
While the state overall failed to meet its five-year production goal, certain areas exceeded their local goals. The North Country Council, Strafford Regional Planning Commission, and the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission all surpassed their building aims.
The type of housing being built in the state has evolved in recent years, according to Shank.
“The percentage of multi-family [housing] has been growing and the percentage of single-family, in terms of the whole, has been less,” she said.
According to the report, single-family permits constituted 36% of the total issued statewide, down from 46% in 2023.
In Hillsborough, Rockingham, Strafford, Merrimack, and Grafton counties, the majority of permits issued in 2024 were for multi-family housing.
The report attributes this shift to the InvestNH program, which is funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act and primarily supported multi-family housing initiatives.
In 2025, a successful bipartisan effort helped enact new laws designed to encourage more building by loosening zoning restrictions and limiting individual towns’ local control.
This legislative session has seen myriad attempts to roll back these initiatives.
