You know what really grinds my gears? When someone says it’s “pretty cool” or that we’ve “reached a huge milestone,” like some sort of celebration that the median home price has hit a million. That was last week’s WMUR chicken-little squawk around the NH Seacoast housing market.

That million-dollar median isn’t really the Seacoast, but 13 cherry-picked Rockingham County towns with none of the Strafford Seacoast spillover.

Those 13 towns are: Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, North Hampton, Newmarket, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook, and Stratham.

Plus, the million-dollar-plus number is based upon barely a market with about only seven active listings per town on average. Four of those towns have five or fewer homes for sale. Only four towns on that list crack double digits. When the dollar mix of sales leans pricey for a month, but the availability of actual homes on the market is lean, the median jumps high hard.

WMUR’s piece frames the story as spectacle: using a tight, luxury-leaning 13-town sample to produce a sensational headline, then using statewide affordability language to moralize the million-dollar-plus. I used to be in the news business, my brother used to be in the news business, and trust me, my brother and I would have both framed the story the same exact way WMUR did.

New Hampshire Realty Association President Josh Greenwald plays the local media’s necessary counterweight. He acknowledges the affordability crisis, then pivots to optimism: inventory is improving, things are moving the right way. That’s the realtor-association job description: keep confidence so the market doesn’t freeze. And Greenwald is not wrong. Inventory is up from the 2021-2022 basement.

We saw around 2,300 homes for sale in early 2021, then the drop fell hard through the rest of 2021 and into early 2022. After the market tightened and choices pretty much evaporated, the number of houses for sale remained pinned for a long stretch, mostly hovering in the mid-1,300s to 1,500s, with just a brief glimmer of hope early 2023. But then, in 2024, we were at our weakest point again, until listings turned upward, and the climb accelerated through 2025. Today, we’re still shy of the 2021 number, but February is early days in 2026. Greenwald’s responsible saying affordability is definitely front and center for everyone. “So we’re seeing everything moving in the right direction,” he said.

Except, and this is a BIG except, New Hampshire single-family inventory has fallen from roughly 11,000+ homes for sale in 2011 to a mid-2022/2024 basement near 1,500 available homes for sale. The overall arc is a long, steady tightening that turns into a pandemic-era cliff drop, followed by a meaningful rebound up from the basement, but we have not yet even reached the first-floor kitchen. We’re like, maybe, in the basement stairwell on the third or fourth step. We can see the light. We smell freshly baked bread.

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Except we’re still damn hungry because the one thing I’m not saying here is that buying a home in New Hampshire is necessarily easy or cheap.

From 2011 through 2020, the NH median home price climbed, but climbed steadily, calmly. We went from the low $200Ks to around $300K. Then 2021 prices launched, surging into the mid-$400Ks, and now we’re staring at mid $500K. This is the chart everyone would love to ignore.

That red line is a simple extension of the pre-2020 trend of what normal appreciation looked like before the pandemic shock. The blue line is what actually happened: a surge.

But not just a surge; a new slope with a steeper trajectory. People who buy homes in New Hampshire should also buy bumper stickers for their cars that read “This car climbed the New Hampshire Housing Market.”

Look, WMUR didn’t lie. They’re not fake news. And it is hard out there. I know. I’m a Realtor who rents, for God’s sake. I’ve told people straight up: don’t buy.

Maybe I shouldn’t be turning away business. Maybe I should get better at handling buyer and seller objections—the ones the industry loves to “train” you to swat down with scripts that make you sound like a brochure.

But what I’m really saying is this: double-check the numbers. Heck, even my stats are cherry-picked: I don’t report on condos, manufactured, or mobile homes for example. My tracking of the Seacoast is, well, the entire Seacoast. But when I’m looking at Portsmouth, why do I only look at Portsmouth and Newington but not Greenland, or hell, Kittery for that matter?

Don’t let the media decide for you that homeownership will never be for you. Maybe it’s a matter of planning. Maybe it’s a matter of waiting. Or maybe it’s not your cup of coffee at all. But if homeownership is a dream of yours, don’t you owe it to yourself to have an informed conversation with someone you trust?

Let’s talk homeownership (over coffee). Just hit the big green button.

📍 Statewide New Hampshire Housing Market

• Active Listings: 1,306

  • Closed Sales (Last 6 Months): 3,370

  • Pending Sales: 481

  • Median Days on Market (DOM): 8

  • Median Home Price: $518,500

  • Inventory: 2.3 months

  • NH Median Household Income: $96,838

  • Mortgage Rate: 6.18%

  • Affordability Index: 80%

📍 Seacoast Area

• Active Listings: 197

  • Closed Transactions (Last 6 Months): 619

  • Pending Transactions: 96

• Days on Market (DOM):

  • Highest: 138

  • Average: 18

  • Median: 8

• Pricing Trends:

  • Lowest List Price: $199,000

  • Lowest Sold Price: $185,000

  • Average List Price: $754,383

  • Average Sold Price: $749,135

  • Median List Price: $599,900

  • Median Sold Price: $600,000

• Tri-City Area (Dover, Somersworth, Rochester)

  • Active Listings: 33

• Durham, Newmarket, Madbury & Lee

  • Active Listings: 8

• Portsmouth & Newington

  • Active Listings: 19

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About this publication.

Coffee with Steve is an independent publication by Steve Bargdill. Views are my own and do not represent Keller Williams Coastal & Lakes & Mountains Realty (“KWCLM”) or any other organization. Each Keller Williams Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

Not advice. Content is informational and educational; it is not legal, tax, or financial advice and does not guarantee results. Talk to a licensed professional who knows your situation before you act.

No agency created. Reading this does not create an agency relationship or agreement for services. Brokerage representation requires a separate written agreement with KWCLM.

Licensure. I am licensed in New Hampshire. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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You can reach Keller Williams Coastal and Lakes & Mountains Realty at 603-610-8500 or Steve Bargdill directly at 603-617-6018.

Steve Bargdill | Realtor & Author | Seacoast NH | Licensed in NH as Stephen Bargdill Jr., with Keller Williams Coastal & Lakes & Mountains Realty.

Pronouns: he, they