Best Places to Buy Rental Property in New Hampshire (2026)

Hudson leads New Hampshire on gross yield at 7.0 percent, not because it is the cheapest city here (that is Keene at $375,000) but because its $2,700 median asking rent is high for a $460,000 home. Manchester, the busiest market on the list with about 170 closings a month, sits eighth of 15 at 5.3 percent. A second table lists one city with enough closings to price but too few rental listings to rank.

The ranking

Gross yield here is an asking rental yield screen: twelve times the median asking rent over the median closed price, before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management or repairs. Sales use municipal boundaries. Rental listings use the associated city name and may cover a wider postal area. The ratio therefore compares related, but not perfectly matched, market samples, and a home bought at the median price does not necessarily earn the median rent. Confirmed-close medians appear where at least 30 confirmed lease closes were recorded in the window.

City by city

1. Hudson, 7.0 percent gross

Hudson ranks first on yield but only sixth on entry price: the $2,700 median asking rent is doing the work, not a cheap purchase. The numbers: $460,000 median closed price across 150 closings, $2,700 median asking rent across 147 listings, 7.0 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $301 per square foot. The Hudson market page carries the monthly figures.

2. Exeter, 6.5 percent gross

Rent is what puts Exeter second here; on price alone it would sit seventh of 15. The numbers: $483,500 median closed price across 314 closings, $2,600 median asking rent across 135 listings, 6.5 percent gross. See the Exeter page for the property mix and the price band.

3. Keene, 6.1 percent gross

Read Keene's $1,895 rent as an apartment figure: 69 percent of its listings are apartments or condos. The numbers: $375,000 median closed price across 189 closings, $1,895 median asking rent across 207 listings, 6.1 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $229 per square foot. Full detail is on the Keene market page.

4. Merrimack, 6.0 percent gross

Rent is what puts Merrimack fourth here; on price alone it would sit eighth of 15. Homes in Merrimack closed at a median of $512,500 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $2,550, a gross yield of 6.0 percent. See the Merrimack page for the property mix and the price band.

5. Derry, 5.9 percent gross

Derry's rental sample is 73 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $2,195 asking median understates what a house rents for there. At $449,000 to buy and $2,195 a month to rent, Derry yields 5.9 percent gross on 279 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $302 per square foot. Full detail is on the Derry market page.

6. Concord, 5.7 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Concord far: it is second cheapest on this list and sixth on yield, with rent of $2,000 against a $420,000 median price. Homes in Concord closed at a median of $420,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $2,000, a gross yield of 5.7 percent. See the Concord page for the property mix and the price band.

7. Salem, 5.4 percent gross

Salem's rental sample is 68 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $2,482 asking median understates what a house rents for there: houses asked $3,325. Homes in Salem closed at a median of $547,500 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $2,482, a gross yield of 5.4 percent. Houses there closed at about $341 per square foot. Full detail is on the Salem market page.

8. Manchester, 5.3 percent gross

Manchester's rental sample is 80 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $1,978 asking median understates what a house rents for there: houses asked $2,500. The numbers: $450,000 median closed price across 1,021 closings, $1,978 median asking rent across 1,805 listings, 5.3 percent gross. Full detail is on the Manchester market page.

9. Londonderry, 5.3 percent gross

Londonderry clears the rental bar narrowly, with 76 listings behind its $2,500 median, so its 5.3 percent yield deserves a wider margin of error than the bigger samples here. At $570,000 to buy and $2,500 a month to rent, Londonderry yields 5.3 percent gross on 155 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $294 per square foot. The Londonderry market page carries the monthly figures.

10. Nashua, 5.1 percent gross

Read Nashua's $2,250 rent as an apartment figure: 64 percent of its listings are apartments or condos, and the house median is $3,000. Homes in Nashua closed at a median of $530,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $2,250, a gross yield of 5.1 percent. Houses there closed at about $305 per square foot. Full detail is on the Nashua market page.

11. Portsmouth, 5.1 percent gross

Read Portsmouth's $2,950 rent as an apartment figure: 60 percent of its listings are apartments or condos, and the house median is $3,500. The numbers: $694,900 median closed price across 346 closings, $2,950 median asking rent across 495 listings, 5.1 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $560 per square foot. The Portsmouth market page carries the monthly figures.

12. Laconia, 5.1 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Laconia far: it is fourth cheapest on this list and twelfth on yield, with rent of $1,900 against a $449,950 median price. The numbers: $449,950 median closed price across 356 closings, $1,900 median asking rent across 272 listings, 5.1 percent gross. Full detail is on the Laconia market page.

13. Dover, 4.8 percent gross

Read Dover's $2,300 rent as an apartment figure: 64 percent of its listings are apartments or condos, and the house median is $3,000. The numbers: $574,253 median closed price across 313 closings, $2,300 median asking rent across 665 listings, 4.8 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $330 per square foot. See the Dover page for the property mix and the price band.

14. Hampton, 4.3 percent gross

Read Hampton's $2,398 rent as an apartment figure: 63 percent of its listings are apartments or condos, and the house median is $2,750. At $676,000 to buy and $2,398 a month to rent, Hampton yields 4.3 percent gross on 219 tracked closings. See the Hampton page for the property mix and the price band.

15. Bedford, 3.4 percent gross

Bedford's rental sample is 67 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $2,285 asking median understates what a house rents for there. At $811,000 to buy and $2,285 a month to rent, Bedford yields 3.4 percent gross on 197 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $306 per square foot. The Bedford market page carries the monthly figures.

Priced, but too few rentals to rank

These cities cleared 100 tracked closings but fewer than 50 rental listings carried their name in the last twelve months, so no yield is printed for them.

How this ranking is built

• •Cities: every New Hampshire city where Resideline tracked at least 100 closings inside the municipal boundary in its reporting window (six or twelve months) and at least 50 rental listings under the city's name since September 10, 2025: 15 cities qualify.
• •Prices: the median price homes closed at inside the city limits, from Resideline's tracked closings; the state comparison uses the statewide median of $505,000 across 15,263 closings.
• •Rents: the median advertised rent on rental listings Resideline tracked in the last twelve months, all property types, measured on the listings that carry the city's name (a postal footprint, wider than the city line in some places).
• •Confirmed-close medians: Observed rent blends two kinds of record: confirmed lease closes extracted from property records, and the final asking rent on listings that left Resideline tracking without a recorded close. Where a city has at least 30 confirmed closes in the window, their median is printed beside the asking figure; in the last twelve months about a quarter of Resideline's close episodes are confirmed closes. The asking and confirmed-close samples are separate, not paired, so a difference between their medians is not a measured gap on the same listings.
• •What is missing: taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and repairs, which turn a gross yield into a net one, and the unit mix, which differs between what sells and what rents.

Sources and related pages

• •Resideline tracked closings inside city limits (window per city, updated September 10, 2026) and rental listings since September 10, 2025; confirmed lease closes extracted from property records.
• •More New Hampshire rankings: Cheapest cities to buy a house in New Hampshire ranks the same kind of list with each city's price per square foot for houses, realized appreciation and days to contract beside the median. The New Hampshire housing market hub carries the statewide figures and the largest New Hampshire markets by closings.
• •Asking rent vs observed rent compares live asking rents with final asking rents under that study's own definition; it says nothing about confirmed lease closes.

Prepared with Resideline's research pipeline and reviewed by Jeffrey Batista, Resideline's founder.