The comparison
In Coös County, a million dollars is roughly four times the median sale price. It reaches essentially anything available in the market, and the constraint stops being budget and becomes inventory. The county recorded 27 sales in March 2026 across fifteen municipalities, so the practical question is whether a suitable property exists at all rather than whether you can afford it.
In Concord, at a roughly $415,000 median, a million is more than double the middle of the market. It buys at the top of the local range. Worth pairing with the tax note: Concord's 2025 total rate was $29.11 per $1,000, so a home assessed near a million carries an annual bill in the high twenty thousands.
In Hooksett, at around $440,000, similar arithmetic with a substantially lower rate. Hooksett's median annual bill has run around $7,328 at an effective rate near 1.7% of market value.
In Nashua, at $490,000 to $543,000 depending on the source, a million is roughly double the median and buys well above the typical transaction in the state's second-largest city.
In Portsmouth, at around $830,000, a million is only modestly above the median. It buys a normal Portsmouth house rather than an exceptional one. The city's composite tax rate was reported near 1.15% of market value for 2025.
On Lake Winnipesaukee waterfront, at a $2.3 million median, a million does not reach the median at all. It reaches the lower end of the waterfront market, or comfortably into water access property, which is a different product entirely.
What the spread actually shows
Three things worth taking away.
Location moves value more than anything you can build. The difference between Coös and Winnipesaukee waterfront on the same budget is roughly a factor of ten, and no amount of finish work closes a gap like that.
Tax rate is a separate variable from price. Compiled 2025 rates across New Hampshire municipalities ranged from roughly $2.62 to $36.54 per $1,000. A million-dollar house in a high-rate town and a million-dollar house in a low-rate town have very different annual costs, and the rate does not track the price.
Median comparisons only go so far. Every figure above is a middle number across a mixed set of properties. What a specific million-dollar house looks like in Nashua depends on the neighborhood, the age, the lot, and the condition, and a town median tells you none of that.
Want to know what a specific budget reaches in a specific town? I'll pull actual closed sales in your range. Two business days, no obligation.
Why do the source figures disagree?
They measure different things, and it's worth knowing before you rely on any of them.
Nashua is the clearest case. One tracker reported a $543,000 median sale price for the three months ending July 2026, up 5.4% year over year. Another put the median at $490,000, roughly flat. Both were published in 2026 about the same city.
The differences come from time windows, whether a figure measures closed sales or list prices, whether it's a median or an average, and what mix of property types it covers. A quarter weighted toward condominiums produces a different median than one weighted toward single-family homes without either market having moved.
Bedford shows the same pattern more dramatically, with 2026 figures ranging from $738,000 to $937,000 depending on the source.
None of these sources is wrong. They're answering slightly different questions. For orientation they're useful. For pricing a specific house they're not a substitute for the actual closed sales nearby.
Does a million dollars go further outside the southern tier?
Substantially, and the trade-off is worth stating plainly.
Northern and western New Hampshire offer far more house for the money, and they come with longer market times, thinner services, and greater distance from Boston-area employment. Coös County homes averaged 104 days on market in March 2026, against roughly 13 to 36 days in Nashua.
Whether that trade works depends on what the property is for. For a primary residence tied to southern New Hampshire employment, the math generally doesn't. For a second home, a recreational property, or a remote-work situation, it can look very different.
