New Hampshire financial institutions saw huge real estate lending gains in the first half of 2026, thanks to a robust economy, lower interest rates, increased property listings and a slowly improving refi loan environment.

Whether the fast pace of lending can last through the second half of the year is questionable due to the Fed’s recent hike in interest rates and the upward spiral in bond yields.

Still, lenders can savor what they’ve achieved so far in 2026.

Indeed, many banks, credit unions and mortgage companies saw triple-digit percentage point increases in residential and commercial real estate lending during the first six month of the year, according to data from The Warren Group, the real estate data analytics firm and publisher of The Registry Review.

On the residential front, New Hampshire-based Ledyard National Bank and Sugar River Bank, among others, posted impressive lending gains.

On the commercial real estate side, Maine’s Bar Habor Bank & Trust and Passumpsic Savings Bank and local lenders Bank of New Hampshire and Meredith Village Savings Bank all posted three-digit percentage increases in their CRE lending in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, Camden National Bank, which last year acquired New Hampshire’s Northway Bank, emerged as a strong new CRE player in the Granite State, data shows.

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What Drove CRE Lending Jumps?

The impressive residential and CRE jump in loans can be attributable to a wide variety of factors

But Chris Walkley, senior vice president and senior commercial banking manager at Bank of New Hampshire, perhaps summed it up best: “There was definitely some pent-up demand out there. There was an optimism going into the year.”

As for residential lending, financial institutions were clearly helped by the relentless rise in home prices in New Hampshire, with single-family prices jumping by 5 percent to $525,000, year-to-date through June, according to Warren Group data.

“We did a lot of jumbo loans, so some of the [loan] gains came from increased home prices,” said Kim Lebron, executive vice president and chief lending officer at Hanover-based Ledyard National Bank, noting the Upper Valley region’s large number of higher-income health care workers.

Lebron added that single-family starter homes alone start at about $550,000 in the Lebanon-Hanover area of the state.

But Ledyard – whose total residential lending was up an eye-popping 144 percent, to $39.7 million, in the first half of the year – also benefited from an 87 percent increase in sale and refinance loans it made in early 2026.

New Listings Played Role

Across the state, new listings jumped in the first half of the year by 8.2 percent, according to data from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.

In the end, Ledyard National ranked seventh in total residential volume and eighth in sales in the state over the first six months of the year, according to data.

Besides the external market forces driving Ledyard’s numbers, Lebron credited the bank’s performance to conscious in-house decisions to offer more creative loan products, such as those aimed at health-care workers.

Roger Strecker, a home lending expert at Navy Federal Credit Union, agreed that New Hampshire’s real estate market, in general, was quite strong earlier this year, accounting for much of his institution’s 83.7 percent spike in residential lending, to $47.9 million, in the first half of 2026.

Among the fastest growing residential lenders in New Hampshire, Navy Federal ranked 18th during the first half of 2026, according to data.

Strecker said Navy Federal saw strong demand for home equity lines of credit (HELOC) products through June.

Rates Helped. So Did Intentions

Lower interest rates in the first half of 2026 also helped business.

But also like Lebron, Strecker said conscious decisions by his institution helped drive numbers, particularly Navy Federal commitment five years ago to more heavily focus on the New Hampshire market.

Julie Hitchcock, Navy Federal’s former state business development officer and currently its member outreach regional manager, deserves enormous credit for recently expanding the institution’s footprint in new Hampshire, Strecker said.

As for other major residential lenders active in New Hampshire, Massachusetts-based Cambridge Savings Bank led the pack in the first half of 2026, posting a 662 percent increase in lending, though its $20.8 million total volume mostly came down to a single $16 million residential refinance loan in Carroll County, according to county property records.

As for commercial real estate lending, Citizens Financial – parent company of Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank –saw the fastest growth during the first half of the year, posting a 1,706 percent gain in dollar volume of loans made. But that was up from only $2.3 million in 2025 to $42.6 million in 2026, data shows.

Strong Local Ties Fared Well

In general, firms with strong New Hampshire ties did particularly well on the CRE front.

Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, which early last year purchased New Hampshire’s Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank, saw its CRE lending up 476 percent compared to last year, ranking it second among the fastest growing CRE lenders in the state.

Vermont’s Passumpsic Savings Bank, with its strong northern New Hampshire presence, saw CRE lending hit $9.8 million, up 277 percent, putting it third on the state’s fastest growing CRE lenders list in the first half of 2026.

Perhaps most impressive considering the starting size of its loan portfolio, Bank of New Hampshire, the state’s largest commercial bank, saw its CRE lending zoom upward by 220 percent, to $199.2 million, during the first six months of the year, according to data.

Bank of New Hampshire’s Walkley said the bank’s CRE lending covered everything from purchases of commercial properties to refinancings.’

Lending for multifamily deals was particularly strong due to the overall acute shortage of homes in New Hampshire, a shortage that’s also driving up the value of existing multifamily housing.

“It’s just a good asset class,” Walkley said of multifamily housing in general. “A lot of investors are looking at it. People need housing.”

Hospitality investments are also doing well , he noted.

“It’s a pretty stable asset,” he said. “People are still looking to put money into hospitality.”

But not so much office properties.

“Offices are still struggling,” Walkley said. “There’s still vacancy problems out there.”

CRE Refis ‘Out of Necessity’

Meanwhile, commercial refinancing activity is doing somewhat well, though much of it is tied to prior five-year term deals coming to a close and in need of refinancing.

“It’s more refinancings out of necessity,” said Walkley.

As good as residential and CRE lending was in the first half of 2026, industry officials question whether the fast pace can be sustained through the last six months of the year.

Walkley said there’s likely going to be a slowdown in lending due to the recent Federal Reserve hike in its benchmark short-term interest rate.

“It changes the numbers on a lot of projects,” he said.

Ledyard’s Lebron agreed that rising interest rates will likely hamper lending around the state.

“It’s definitely going to have a slowdown in some markets, though not all markets,” she said. “We’re probably going to see pockets of a slowdown.”