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Stating the Facts: Schleyer Speaks Out Regarding the State of the NH Housing Market

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NH Legislative Office Building
NH Legislative Office Building

On Tuesday, January 14th , Principal at Elm Grove Companies, Chris Schleyer, was invited to speak before the legislative committee on housing in Concord, New Hampshire to discuss the current state of the housing market in NH. Topics such as the increase in rental rates, low vacancy rates, and other issues that are directly affecting the housing market were discussed, as well as some solutions to improve the market in the near future. 

Rental rates have increased by over 30% in the last five years with the median rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in 2019 at $1400 increasing to $1850 per month in 2025. This has led renters to paying up to 58% of their income towards housing costs where a healthy market would be around 35%. 

Vacancy rates are much lower than in previous years, at 0.6%, where a healthy market would be 5% vacancy rate. This is a trend shown in the Elm Grove Companies portfolio as well. “Our average vacancy rate is 2%, but our vacancy rate at our affordable properties is much lower. In any given month we will receive about 450 inquiries for only about thirty-five open units,” Schleyer stated.  

With issues such as in-migration, inflation, cost of construction and zoning regulations, the market will struggle to improve until these issues can be resolved. To reach a healthy housing market, the addition of 30,000 additional units of housing are needed of all types. To reach this goal some changes need to be made such as updating zoning ordinances, allocating more funds to the NHHAA, streamlining the permitting processes on both the state and local levels, and educating local planning and zoning boards on the current reality of the NH housing market, and its need for change. 

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