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Crunching costs, sorting signals, rendering insights.
Crunching costs, sorting signals, rendering insights.
Nobody expects rock-bottom prices in New Hampshire — but that doesn't mean all cities are equally expensive. Manchester (index 115, rent $1,976/mo) carves out real savings within a high-cost market. We analyzed 1 cities to find where your money goes furthest in 2026.
115,474 residents · New Hampshire
Here's Manchester by the numbers — and there's a lot to like. Cost index: 115. About what you'd guess. Rent: $1,976/month — for better or worse — . Income: $77,415/year. Home price: $427,321. Population: 115,474. The strongest category is Healthcare at 103; the most expensive is Housing at 115. Translate that rent to annual numbers, and residents are costing renters $972 more per year vs. the national median. That's a meaningful edge in practice. That's not nothing.
#1 Ranked: Manchester — cost index 115, rent $1,976/mo, income $77,415
0 of 1 cities come in below the national cost-of-living average of 111
Data sourced from Census Bureau, Zillow, BLS, and Tax Foundation — current as of 2026
| Rank | City | Cost Index | Median Rent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester | 115 | $1,976 | Details |
Nobody expects rock-bottom prices in New Hampshire — but that doesn't mean all cities are equally expensive. Manchester (index 115, rent $1,976/mo) carves out real savings within a high-cost market. We analyzed 1 cities to find where your money goes furthest in 2026.
At $1,976/month for rent and a cost index of 115, Manchester is pretty much what you'd expect from a mid-size city in this part of the country. Income is $77,415. You get the picture.
Bottom line: Manchester leads this ranking for clear, data-backed reasons — but the "best" city depends on your priorities. Click into any city below to see the full detail page with 12-month trend charts, profession-specific salary data, and a breakdown of all five cost categories. If you're seriously considering a move, use our salary calculator to model your specific income against these numbers.
Rent is the single largest expense for most households. We rank all tracked cities in New Hampshire by median 1-bedroom rent (Zillow ZORI) from lowest to highest, filtering out any cities with incomplete data. All data is sourced from federal agencies and verified research institutions. Cost of living indices are normalized to 100 (national median) using Zillow rent as the primary signal, with sub-category adjustments derived from regional BLS price data. Rankings are updated monthly as new data is released.
Manchester ranks #1 in New Hampshire for this analysis with a cost index of 115 and median income of $77,415.
Our cost of living index uses real Zillow rent data as the foundation, indexed to 100 (national median). Sub-categories (housing, food, transport, utilities, healthcare) are derived from the overall index with regional adjustments. Data is updated monthly.
City data is refreshed monthly from Census Bureau population estimates, Zillow rent and home price indices, BLS salary data, and Tax Foundation tax rates. Last updated: 2026.
The median 1-bedroom rent in Manchester is $1,976/month as of 2026, based on Zillow's Observed Rent Index. This is $81 above the national median of $1,895/month.
The median home price in Manchester is $427,321, which is 5.5× the local median income. Most median-income households would stretch to buy at this ratio. The national median home price is $467,370.
New Hampshire has a 0% state income tax rate — one of the states with no income tax. Combined state and local sales tax averages 0%, and the effective property tax rate is 1.57%.
This ranking was generated using data current as of early 2026. Population and income data comes from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (5-year estimates). Rent and home price data is from Zillow's monthly releases. Tax rates are from the Tax Foundation's 2025 edition. Rankings are refreshed monthly.