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

Landlords in Hillsborough County, NH, collectively own 10,342 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, representing 11.1% of the total SFR market. This significant portfolio indicates a robust investor presence within the local housing landscape.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the landlord-owned market, holding 9,137 properties (88.3%), significantly outweighing company-owned portfolios which account for 1,692 properties (16.4%). This market structure defies common narratives often focusing on large corporate landlords, showing a strong reliance on individual investors.

The investor-owned portfolio is overwhelmingly rental-focused, with 10,178 properties designated as rented, equating to 98.4% of all landlord-owned SFR. This highlights a primary strategy centered on generating rental income.

A substantial portion of landlord properties are financed, with 5,464 properties using debt, while 4,878 properties were acquired purely with cash. This nearly even split indicates a mix of financing strategies among landlords in the county.

The market is heavily fragmented by entity type, with 13,889 individual landlords compared to 1,596 company landlords, a remarkable ratio of approximately 8.7 individual landlords for every company landlord. This demonstrates a highly accessible and diverse investor base.

The provided data does not offer a breakdown of property types (rented, financed, cash) by individual versus company portfolios, preventing a direct comparison of their respective holding strategies.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Hillsborough County, NH, demonstrated a significant pricing advantage, acquiring properties at an average of $549,011 – a substantial $64,532 (10.5%) discount compared to the $613,543 paid by traditional homeowners.

The landlord-homeowner price gap has shown considerable volatility throughout 2025. Landlords paid a notable $78,708 (15.4%) premium in Q1, shifted to a $16,898 (3.0%) premium in Q2, then a $11,830 (1.9%) discount in Q3, culminating in the widening 10.5% discount in Q4. This fluctuating trend suggests dynamic market conditions favoring different buyer types across quarters.

Despite the current quarter's discount, overall landlord acquisition prices in Hillsborough County have seen substantial appreciation. The average acquisition price of $549,011 in Q4 2025 represents a significant $148,631 (37.1%) increase from the 2020-2023 average of $400,380, reflecting a considerable rise in property values since the pandemic era.

A notable data anomaly indicates that while average acquisition prices are provided for 2025 Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and previous years, the distinct count of SFR properties purchased for these timeframes is listed as zero in the `section6-1.csv` data. This suggests that while average prices were calculated, the actual volume of purchases during these historical periods is either misreported or was negligible, with the exception of 410 landlord purchases in Q4 2025 that generated the current quarter's pricing data.

The provided data does not include a breakdown of acquisition prices specifically for individual versus company landlords, preventing a direct comparison of their distinct buying strategies and pricing power within the market.

Landlords were highly active in Hillsborough County's real estate market during Q4 2025, capturing 410 of the 711 total SFR purchases. This accounts for a dominant 57.7% share of all SFR transactions, indicating a strong investor presence and demand in the quarter.

The vast majority of this purchasing activity came from mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04), who were responsible for 410 properties, representing an overwhelming 99.5% of all landlord purchases in Q4. This pattern strongly emphasizes the fragmented, individual-driven nature of the investor market in the region.

Specifically, single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active segment, purchasing 393 properties, which constitutes 95.4% of all landlord acquisitions for the quarter. This demonstrates that new entrants and small-scale investors are the primary drivers of current landlord purchasing volume.

Despite the high number of purchases by Tier 01 entities (393 properties), the segment involved 640 distinct entities, suggesting an average of 0.61 properties purchased per active Tier 01 entity. This indicates a highly fragmented buying landscape where many individual landlords were active, but each acquired less than one property on average during the quarter, or that the entity count includes all existing Tier 01 entities, not just new ones.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) showed no purchasing activity in Q4 2025, acquiring 0 properties. This stark absence contrasts sharply with the substantial activity of smaller landlords, reinforcing the localized, non-institutional nature of the market in Hillsborough County, NH.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing portfolios from 1 to 10 properties (Tiers 01-04), exert near-total control over the investor-owned SFR market in Hillsborough County, NH, holding a staggering 99.4% of all such properties. This concentration highlights the prevalence of small-scale investors over larger entities.

The overwhelming majority of investor-owned properties are held by single-property landlords (Tier 01), who account for 9,640 properties, representing 91.8% of the total landlord-owned SFR. This significant share underscores the importance of first-time and single-property investors in the market.

Beyond single-property owners, smaller landlords (2-10 properties, Tiers 02-04) collectively own 700 properties (6.7%), further solidifying the dominance of small-scale investors. Even the small-medium tiers (11-50 properties) collectively represent less than 1% of the market (0.5%).

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have no presence in Hillsborough County's investor-owned SFR market, holding 0 properties. This complete absence challenges the perception of large institutional players dominating local housing markets and reinforces the mom-and-pop investor as the primary force.

The provided data does not include acquisition prices broken down by tier, which prevents an analysis of whether larger or smaller investors pay more or less per property in this county.

While individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smaller tiers, companies assume majority ownership starting at the Tier 06-10 level in Hillsborough County, NH. Individuals own 87.2% of single-property portfolios (Tier 01), but companies account for 79.6% of properties in the 6-10 property tier and 71.4% in the 11-20 property tier, marking a distinct crossover point.

Individual landlords maintain a strong presence in the 2-property tier (60.6%) and the 3-5 property tier (55.7%). However, their share drops significantly in larger tiers, signaling a shift in ownership structure as portfolio size increases.

The highest concentration of individual ownership is found in Tier 01, where they hold 8,749 properties, representing 87.2% of that tier. This highlights the extensive involvement of individual investors in the entry-level landlord market.

Conversely, company ownership becomes most concentrated in Tier 06-10, where companies own 39 out of 49 properties (79.6%), and Tier 11-20, holding 30 out of 42 properties (71.4%). This suggests that once landlords expand beyond a few properties, they increasingly transition to or utilize company structures for their holdings.

The provided data lacks specific acquisition pricing information broken down by owner type within each tier, thus preventing an analysis of whether individual or company investors secure better prices for similar-sized portfolios.

Within Hillsborough County, NH, the 03244 zip code stands out as the most significant hub for investor activity, leading both in the count of investor-owned properties (858) and maintaining a high investor ownership rate of 29.9%. This dual leadership indicates a concentrated and highly attractive market for landlords.

Other key sub-geographies by total investor-owned properties include NH-Hillsborough-03054 (541 properties), NH-Hillsborough-03104 (524 properties), and NH-Hillsborough-03103 (522 properties). While these areas have high property counts, their investor ownership rates are comparatively lower, at 7.9%, 8.9%, and 9.3% respectively, suggesting larger overall housing markets where investor penetration is less dense.

Beyond raw counts, zip code NH-Hillsborough-03061 exhibits an exceptionally high investor ownership rate of 100.0%. This extreme figure suggests it might represent a very niche sub-market or a data anomaly, indicating a unique area predominantly or exclusively comprised of investor-owned properties.

The data reveals a strong correlation between high property counts and high ownership rates in certain areas like 03244, indicating hot spots where investors are both numerous and represent a significant portion of the total housing stock. In contrast, other high-count areas have lower rates, indicating broader markets where investors are active but less dominant proportionally.

The provided data does not include information on average acquisition prices across these specific geographic regions, which prevents a comparative analysis of pricing dynamics within Hillsborough County's various zip codes.

Landlords in Hillsborough County, NH, are strong net buyers, particularly in Q4 2025, where they completed 666 buy transactions against only 76 sell transactions, resulting in an impressive buy/sell ratio of 8.76x. This indicates a sustained accumulation strategy, signaling confidence in the market.

This robust net buying trend is consistent throughout 2025, with landlords executing 3,283 buy transactions versus 249 sell transactions for the entire year, achieving an even higher annual buy/sell ratio of 13.18x. This long-term activity highlights a continuous expansion of landlord portfolios.

While the net buying trend is strong, the quarterly buy/sell ratio has fluctuated, peaking at 15.48x in Q3 2025 (1,006 buys vs. 65 sells) before moderating slightly to 8.76x in Q4. This suggests that while acquisition remains high, the pace of net accumulation may be adjusting.

The provided data for Section 11 lacks detailed information on institutional investor transactions (1000+ tier), preventing an analysis of whether larger investors are accumulating or divesting properties in Hillsborough County, NH.

Additionally, the data does not include the percentage of buy or sell transactions that occur between landlords (inter-landlord trading), nor does it provide average buy and sell prices. This limits the ability to assess implied profit margins or the liquidity of the landlord-to-landlord market.

Landlords in Hillsborough County, NH, were central to the market's activity in Q4 2025, participating in 666 transactions out of a total of 1,187, equating to a substantial 56.1% share of all SFR transactions. This highlights their critical role in maintaining market liquidity and dynamism.

Transaction volumes were heavily concentrated among smaller investors. Single-property landlords (Tier 01) dominated with 642 transactions, reflecting their strong presence and active participation in the market. In contrast, larger small-medium landlords (Tier 11-20) only engaged in 2 transactions, and institutional investors (Tier 09) recorded no transactions.

A clear pattern in pricing emerged based on investor tier: smaller landlords, particularly Tier 01, paid the highest average purchase price at $545,803. In stark contrast, Tier 06-10 landlords secured properties at the lowest average price of $248,933, representing a significant price spread of $296,870 between the highest and lowest-paying tiers, suggesting varying market strategies or access to different property types.

Inter-landlord trading was relatively low in Q4 2025. Tier 02 landlords had the highest percentage of purchases from other landlords, at 12.5% (1 out of 8 transactions), while Tier 01 saw 7.2% of its transactions sourced from other landlords. This indicates that most landlords acquire properties from non-landlord sellers.

The activity in Q4 transactions largely mirrors the overall ownership distribution by tier, with Tier 01 landlords dominating both current purchasing activity and the total investor-owned property count. This reinforces their foundational role in the Hillsborough County SFR market.