New Hampshire Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords hold a significant 89,671 single-family properties in New Hampshire, comprising 23.6% of the state's total SFR market. This establishes investors as a major force in the regional housing landscape.

The market is characterized by the dominance of small, individual investors, who own 79,137 properties, or 88.3% of the entire investor-owned portfolio. In contrast, company-owned properties number just 16,083, representing a 17.9% share.

This individual dominance extends to the entity level, where 117,550 individual landlords operate, compared to only 15,027 companies. This nearly 8-to-1 ratio underscores the grassroots nature of real estate investment in the state.

A majority of investor-owned properties (55,455, or 61.8%) are held free and clear, indicating a strong preference for cash purchases over financing. Financed properties account for the remaining 34,216 properties.

The portfolio is almost entirely dedicated to rental purposes, with 88,955 properties classified as non-owner-occupied, which is 99.2% of the total investor inventory. This signals a clear focus on generating rental income rather than speculative flipping.

Investors in New Hampshire demonstrated a strong pricing advantage in Q4 2025, paying an average of $533,929 per property. This was 11.9% less than the $605,937 paid by traditional homeowners, translating to a substantial discount of $72,008 on a typical purchase.

The Q4 discount marks a sharp reversal from earlier in the year. In Q3, the landlord discount was a negligible 1.3% ($7,610), and in Q1 and Q2, landlords actually paid a small premium of 1.0% and 0.3% respectively, indicating a significant shift in purchasing strategy or market conditions toward the end of the year.

Acquisition prices have risen considerably since the pandemic-era boom. The Q4 average of $533,929 is 22.1% higher than the average price of $437,173 recorded between 2020 and 2023, showcasing significant market appreciation.

Comparing year-over-year trends, the average landlord acquisition price of $561,253 for all of 2025 is slightly lower than the 2024 average of $562,899. This suggests a stabilization or slight cooling in investor purchase prices after several years of rapid growth.

Investor activity surged in Q4 2025, with landlords acquiring 1,609 of the 2,783 single-family homes sold in New Hampshire. This represents a commanding 57.8% market share, indicating investors were the most active buyer segment during the period.

The market's growth is driven exclusively by smaller players. Mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) accounted for 1,616 properties, or 99.8% of all investor purchases, completely overshadowing larger investors.

A significant wave of new investors entered the market, with 2,536 distinct entities purchasing their very first rental property. These first-time landlords acquired 1,555 homes, making up 96.0% of all Q4 investor buying activity.

In stark contrast to the activity at the small end of the market, institutional investors (1,000+ properties) were entirely absent from the acquisition landscape, purchasing zero properties in Q4.

The data reveals a highly concentrated buying pattern, with the single-property tier not only being the largest but also demonstrating the most momentum, signaling a market expansion fueled by new, small-scale participants.

The investor landscape in New Hampshire is defined by extreme fragmentation, with mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) controlling 99.6% of all investor-held SFRs. This structure defies the narrative of large-scale corporate ownership.

Single-property landlords are the bedrock of the market, owning 83,653 properties. This single tier represents an overwhelming 91.3% of the entire investor-owned housing stock in the state.

As portfolio sizes increase, ownership concentration drops dramatically. Landlords with 2-5 properties own a combined 7.9% of the inventory, while all tiers with more than 10 properties collectively own less than 0.5%.

The presence of institutional capital is virtually nonexistent. Investors in the 1,000+ property tier own a total of just 5 homes across the entire state, accounting for a statistically insignificant 0.0% market share.

This distribution highlights a market powered almost entirely by small, local investors rather than large, out-of-state corporations, shaping the dynamics of the rental market in New Hampshire.

Individual investors form the foundation of the New Hampshire rental market, owning a commanding 85.3% of properties in the single-unit tier (75,235 properties). This dominance continues through the 2-property (68.8%) and 3-5 property (57.1%) tiers.

A distinct crossover point occurs in the 6-10 property tier, where company ownership surges to 78.9%. This is the first tier where corporate structures become the predominant form of ownership, suggesting a professionalization threshold as portfolios grow.

Companies continue to be the majority owners in the 11-20 property tier (89.0% share) and the 21-50 property tier (51.9% share), solidifying their control over mid-sized portfolios.

An interesting anomaly appears in the 51-100 property tier, where individual ownership unexpectedly resurges to a 90.5% majority. This may indicate a segment of high-net-worth individuals who manage larger portfolios without formal incorporation.

Overall, the data shows a clear pattern: individuals dominate entry-level investing, while companies take over for mid-size portfolio growth, with a small but notable exception for larger individual holders.

Investor activity in New Hampshire is highly concentrated geographically, with Carroll County emerging as the undisputed epicenter. It leads all other counties by a wide margin in both total investor-owned properties (17,288) and investor ownership rate (59.0%).

Following Carroll, the counties with the highest volume of investor properties are Rockingham (11,401), Grafton (11,030), and Hillsborough (10,342). These regions represent the largest absolute markets for rental housing in the state.

The ranking shifts when examining market penetration. After Carroll County's 59.0% rate, the areas with the highest investor ownership percentage are Coos (41.5%), Sullivan (40.1%), Grafton (37.3%), and Belknap (35.6%).

A key finding is the divergence between volume and rate. For instance, Rockingham County is second for total count but has a relatively low 13.7% investor rate, indicating a large market with lower investor penetration. Conversely, Coos County has a very high rate (41.5%) but a smaller absolute number of investor properties, signaling a different market dynamic.

This data reveals distinct investor strategies across the state, from deep saturation in markets like Carroll to broader participation in larger housing markets like Rockingham and Hillsborough.

Landlords across New Hampshire are heavily focused on portfolio expansion, operating as strong net buyers. In Q4 2025, they purchased 2,613 properties while selling only 223, resulting in a net gain of 2,390 properties and a buy-to-sell ratio of 11.7 to 1.

This aggressive acquisition strategy is not a recent phenomenon but a sustained trend. For the full year of 2025, landlords acquired 12,663 properties and sold just 855, yielding a powerful 14.8x buy-to-sell ratio.

The pattern of accumulation was similarly strong in the prior year. In 2024, landlords bought 11,502 homes and sold 780, for a nearly identical buy-to-sell ratio of 14.7x. This consistency signals a long-term strategic commitment to growing rental housing stock in the state.

Quarterly data throughout 2025 confirms this trend, with buy-to-sell ratios remaining exceptionally high in Q3 (15.4x) and Q2 (15.9x). The slight moderation in Q4 could indicate seasonality or a response to changing market conditions.

While the overall market trend is clear, specific transaction data for institutional-grade investors (1,000+ properties) was unavailable, preventing a direct comparison of their behavior against the broader market.

Landlords were the most significant players in the Q4 2025 transaction market, participating in 2,613 of the 4,680 total SFR transactions. This gives investors a majority share of 55.8% of all market activity.

The overwhelming majority of these transactions were driven by the smallest investors. The single-property tier alone accounted for 2,542 transactions, representing 97.3% of all landlord activity during the quarter.

A clear price disparity exists based on investor size. New entrants in the single-property tier paid the highest average price at $529,989. This suggests they are competing directly with traditional homebuyers in the retail market.

In contrast, more experienced, mid-size landlords secured properties at a steep discount. Those in the 3-5 property tier paid an average of $316,311, while those in the 6-10 property tier paid just $298,018—a 43.8% discount compared to new entrants.

Inter-landlord trading was minimal. Only 6.9% of properties purchased by single-property investors came from other landlords, indicating that most new supply is being acquired from the traditional homeowner market rather than from investor-to-investor sales.