The median single-family sale price in one of New Hampshire’s biggest regional submarkets crossed an important threshold last year. 

A new analysis by researchers at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that the median single-family price in Hillsborough County hit 5.03 times the area’s median household income for the first time since at least 1980. 

The U.S. Census Bureau put the county’s median annual household income at $103,727 for 2023, the most recent data available. The Warren Group, publisher of The Registry Review, put the median single-family sale price at $501,500 for 2024. 

The same analysis found that a family would need to make $181,226 per year to afford the mortgage payment, taxes and typical insurance costs on the median single-family sale price in Hillsborough County in the first quarter of this year. 

The analysis assumed a 3.5 percent down payment – typical of a first-time buyer – and a 6.74 percent mortgage rate, the average for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan during that period according to mortgage-buyer Freddie Mac. 

“There must be a concerted effort to do more to address the affordability and supply crises,” Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, said in a statement. “The potential consequences of inaction are simply too harmful to the macroeconomy and the millions of households striving for a safe, affordable place to call home.”