Durham, New Hampshire.
Typical home $698,927 (+0.6% in a year), asking rent $3,514 . Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,221 (+153%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,305 +1%
- $694,622$698,927 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $203,302 +41%
- $495,626$698,927 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Durham$3,668
- New Hampshire$2,682
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Durham, NH rose 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Durham, Strafford County, New Hampshire
Durham, in Strafford County, had 11,147 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $112,070 a year and half less, against $88,570 across Strafford County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Strafford County was 2.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Durham is a college town, and that shapes nearly everything about it. Residents are far younger than in most American communities, and more of them rent their homes than across most of the county. Household incomes run above the county's, though a noticeable share of people live below the poverty line, and homes and rents are expensive. Nearly everyone who is an adult here has a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and the year is fairly wet.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and professional and business services also employing a good number. The University of New Hampshire is the largest workplace in town, followed by RiverWoods Durham, a retirement community, and Hannaford, the grocery store. Commutes are short, and a fair number of people work from home. Unemployment across Strafford County is low and a little lower than a year earlier, though the number of jobs has barely changed.
Things to do. The area is mostly about water. The Lamprey River, the Oyster River and the Bellamy River are all a short drive away, and Bunker Creek runs in or beside town. For some history, Fort Stark is a fort a longer drive away, as is Fort William and Mary. The Merrimack River is also a longer drive.
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- 1,613households
- 75%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Strafford County had 46,615 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 59°. About 39 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Durham weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Durham
- University of New HampshireUniversity or college3,798
- RiverWoods DurhamContinuing care retirement communities311
- HannafordGrocery stores75
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture31
- DurhamMail and parcel delivery22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 408 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsrelatively high in parts of DurhamRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Durham’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Strafford County and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
Durham home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Durham$698,927
- New Hampshire$510,937
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Durham18
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Durham9
Zip codes with a Durham address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Durham — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.