A house
Renting first
Rent before you buy if you can. Housing is the expensive part of living here, towns differ by a lot, and the tax bill uses the town’s assessment, not the price on the listing.
What rent looks like
Statewide, the Census median gross rent is $1,491 a month. Gross rent includes utilities. In Manchester, the same survey puts median gross rent at $1,564 and the median owner-occupied home value at $365,600. A 2024 survey of market-rate listings put a two-bedroom, with a utility allowance, at $1,833 statewide.
Manchester is the jobs city. You can rent there, or in a smaller town on the drive in, and learn the winter, the school, and the road before you own them. Prices by region are on Regions.
The price and the tax bill
The statewide median value of an owner-occupied home is $402,500. That is a Census value, not an asking price this month, and it is not your assessment.
Manchester’s 2025 certified total rate is $20.24 per $1,000 of assessed value. If the town assessed a house at the Census median of $365,600, the bill would be about $7,400 a year. Weare’s rate is $21.64. On Weare’s Census median of $396,300, that is about $8,576. Your bill is your assessment times your town’s rate. Click the town on the map.
Sources
- Census QuickFacts — statewide median gross rent $1,491 and median home value $402,500, ACS 2020–2024.
- Manchester and Weare home values and rents: Census ACS 5-year 2024, tables B25077 and B25064, on the map.
- NHHFA — 2024 Residential Rental Cost Survey — $1,833 two-bedroom median gross rent.
- NH DRA — property tax — the bill uses assessed value. Town rates are the 2025 certified totals on the map.