Coos (NH) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords in Coos County, NH, currently own 5,684 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, representing a substantial 41.5% of the total 13,710 SFR properties in the market. This high concentration signals a significant investor presence in the local housing landscape.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the landlord-owned portfolio, holding 5,130 properties, which accounts for 90.3% of all investor-owned SFR. In contrast, company-owned SFR properties total 796, representing 14.0% of the market, indicating a strong 'mom-and-pop' characteristic for this county.

The landlord sector is heavily focused on rental income, with 5,658 properties classified as rented – nearly 99.5% of the total investor-owned SFR portfolio. This high percentage underscores the market's role as a significant source of rental housing.

Cash acquisitions are the predominant financing method among landlords, with 4,342 properties (76.4%) purchased outright, compared to 1,342 (23.6%) properties that are financed. This preference for cash suggests a lower reliance on traditional lending and potentially more liquid investors.

By entity count, individual landlords account for 7,467 of the total 8,204 landlords in the county, representing 91.0% of all landlord entities. This highlights the extensive network of independent investors driving the rental market.

In a notable deviation from typical market trends, landlords in Coos County consistently paid a premium over traditional homeowners for SFR properties during 2025. In Q4 2025, landlords acquired properties at an average of $262,394, a $1,520 (0.6%) premium compared to homeowner purchases at $260,874.

This landlord premium, while unusual, has significantly narrowed in Q4. Landlords paid a substantial 23.1% premium in Q3 ($293,144 vs $238,171), a 14.0% premium in Q2 ($314,868 vs $276,207), and an 11.7% premium in Q1 ($303,834 vs $272,000). The dramatic drop in Q4 suggests a shift in market dynamics or acquisition strategies.

The average acquisition price for landlords shows an upward trend since the pandemic era, with Q4 2025 prices at $262,394, reflecting a 5.9% increase from the 2020-2023 average of $247,793. However, it is critical to note that recorded distinct landlord property acquisitions for all timeframes in Section 6-1 show 0 properties, suggesting these average prices may be based on a very small or unrecorded number of transactions.

Despite the Q4 narrowing, the consistent premiums paid by landlords in prior quarters challenge the common perception that investors always secure properties at a discount. This trend may indicate a highly competitive market where investors are willing to pay more for desired assets.

Landlords in Coos County made a significant impact on the Q4 2025 market, acquiring 49 of the total 75 SFR properties sold, which accounts for a substantial 65.3% of all purchases. This high market share highlights their continued and robust investment activity in the region.

The entirety of landlord acquisition activity in Q4 was driven by mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04), who purchased all 49 properties (100.0%). In stark contrast, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) recorded 0 purchases, indicating their complete absence from this quarter's buying frenzy.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the primary drivers of Q4 activity, with 72 distinct entities acquiring 46 properties. This demonstrates a strong influx of new or expanding small-scale investors, forming the backbone of current market purchases.

The remaining landlord purchases were minimal, with one property each by entities in the two-property (Tier 02), small landlord (3-5 properties), and small landlord (6-10 properties) tiers. This reinforces the overwhelming concentration of Q4 buying in the smallest portfolio size.

The investor-owned SFR market in Coos County is overwhelmingly dominated by mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties), who collectively control an astounding 99.7% of the total investor-owned properties, amounting to 5,855 properties across Tiers 01-04. This concentration profoundly shapes the market's dynamics and investor profile.

Specifically, single-property landlords (Tier 01) form the largest segment, owning 5,203 properties and representing 88.6% of all investor-owned SFR. This highlights the foundational role of small-scale, often first-time, landlords in the region's rental housing supply.

In stark contrast to national narratives, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) hold 0.0% of the investor-owned SFR properties in Coos County. This complete absence underscores the local market's reliance on smaller, individual investors rather than large corporations.

Comparing current ownership distribution to Q4 purchase activity reveals an intensifying trend: Tier 01 landlords, who hold 88.6% of overall ownership, made up 93.9% of Q4 landlord purchases. This signals a continued and even increased concentration of market activity at the smallest investor scale.

A clear shift in ownership type occurs across the portfolio tiers in Coos County: individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smaller tiers, but companies quickly become the majority as portfolio sizes grow. Individual owners hold 88.9% of single-property (Tier 01) holdings and 72.0% of 3-5 property holdings.

The pivotal crossover point where companies gain majority control is observed between the 3-5 and 6-10 property tiers. While individuals own 72.0% of properties in the 3-5 tier (157 vs 61 company properties), companies take a commanding 66.7% share in the 6-10 property tier (14 vs 7 individual properties).

This trend accelerates in the larger portfolio sizes, with companies owning 93.8% of properties in the 11-20 tier (15 vs 1 individual property). This indicates that while the county's investor market is largely individual-driven overall, larger-scale operations are almost exclusively structured as companies.

The data from Section 9 shows that the total number of properties represented in this tier breakdown is 6,070, which provides a granular view of how ownership structures change with portfolio size, even if the total differs slightly from other sections.

Within Coos County, investor-owned properties are heavily concentrated in specific zip codes. The 03592 zip code leads by volume with 1,250 investor-owned SFR properties, representing a substantial 68.4% of its total SFR market. Following closely are 03576 with 979 properties (53.5% rate) and 03598 with 864 properties (48.4% rate), showcasing localized investor hotspots.

In terms of investor penetration, some areas demonstrate extremely high saturation. Zip code 03575 stands out with 100.0% of its SFR properties being investor-owned, suggesting a market entirely composed of rental or non-owner-occupied housing. Similarly, 03597 and 03579 show exceptionally high rates of 83.3% and 82.9%, respectively, indicating intense investor focus in these smaller markets.

A strong correlation exists between high property counts and high investor ownership rates in several sub-geographies. Zip codes 03592, 03576, and 03579 appear in both the top 5 by count and top 5 by percentage lists, confirming their status as major centers for landlord activity, both in absolute terms and relative to their total housing stock.

Conversely, zip code 03570 ranks fifth by property count with 437 investor-owned SFR but has a comparatively lower investor ownership rate of 18.1%. This suggests 03570 is a larger market area with a broader mix of owner-occupied and investor-owned properties, rather than being a highly concentrated investor hub.

The data provided for Section 10 does not include information on sub-geographies with the lowest investor ownership rates or average acquisition prices by region.

Landlords in Coos County have consistently acted as strong net buyers throughout 2024 and 2025, actively accumulating SFR properties. In 2025 alone, they purchased 369 properties while selling only 17, resulting in an impressive buy-to-sell ratio of 21.7x, indicating significant market growth driven by investor demand.

The trend of net buying remained robust in Q4 2025, with landlords completing 75 buy transactions against just 4 sell transactions, yielding an 18.75x buy/sell ratio. This consistent buying pressure suggests a healthy confidence among landlords in the long-term value of rental properties in the region.

Over the past year, the buy/sell ratio has seen fluctuations but consistently favored acquisitions. It peaked at 29.5x in Q3 2025 (118 buys vs 4 sells) and was 14.04x in 2024 (337 buys vs 24 sells), demonstrating a sustained, high level of investor property accumulation over multiple periods.

Data for institutional investor (1000+ tier) transactions, including buy/sell counts and average prices, is not available within this section. Therefore, a comparison of their activity patterns with overall landlord trends cannot be made.

Similarly, this section does not provide average buy or sell prices, precluding an analysis of implied profit margins or pricing strategies from transactions over time.

Landlords were a dominant force in the Q4 2025 transaction market in Coos County, participating in 75 out of 118 total SFR transactions. This represents a significant 63.6% share of all quarterly transactions, highlighting their pervasive presence and influence on market activity.

Transaction volumes were overwhelmingly concentrated in the smallest investor tier. Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were responsible for 72 transactions, effectively dominating 96.0% of all landlord transactions in Q4. Other tiers (02, 03-05, 06-10) each registered only one transaction, underscoring the granular nature of the market's activity.

Average purchase prices in Q4 varied considerably by tier, suggesting differing acquisition strategies or property types. Tier 01 landlords paid an average of $271,017, significantly higher than the $50,000 paid by Tiers 02 and 03-05, and $75,000 by Tier 06-10. This wide price spread of $221,017 points to diverse property segments being targeted by different landlord sizes.

Inter-landlord trading activity was minimal in Q4. Only 4 transactions within Tier 01, representing 5.6% of its total transactions, involved properties bought from other landlords. The other active tiers (02, 03-05, 06-10) reported no purchases from other landlords, indicating that most acquisitions are from traditional sellers rather than within the investor ecosystem.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) showed no transaction activity in Q4, further cementing the local market as one driven by smaller, independent investors. This absence of large-scale corporate activity aligns with their 0% ownership share in the county.