Rochester, New Hampshire.
Typical home $406,606 (+3.7% in a year), asking rent $1,820 (+1.0%). Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,296 (+155%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,512 +4%
- $392,094$406,606 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $117,616 +41%
- $288,990$406,606 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.
- Rochester$2,134
- 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 Rochester, NH rose 3.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Rochester, NH rose 1.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Rochester runs $1,376/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $3,196 a month against $1,820 rent: a $2,134 mortgage payment, plus $626 property tax and $435 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Rochester
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,196
- Renting$1,820
- Mortgage only$2,134
Property tax · $626/mo 1.85% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Strafford County, NH
Insurance & upkeep · $435/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Rochester, Strafford County, New Hampshire
Rochester is a city of 32,492 people in Strafford County. Half its households earn more than $80,836 a year and half less, against $88,570 across Strafford County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Rochester was 2.7% in August 2026, and Strafford County had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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. Rochester is a city in Strafford County, with a median age a little older than much of the country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though renting is common too, and typical rents run high for a city this size. Household incomes sit below the county's, and winters are cold and snowy, with warm summers and a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops and professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in Rochester are the Rochester School District, Albany International's aircraft parts manufacturing campus, and Walmart. Unemployment is low and has edged down over the past year, and some people work from home, though most travel to a job.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts and the Rochester Opera House, a theatre, give a place for art and an evening out. A short drive away, Baxter Lake is a spot for time by the water. Lake Winnipesaukee, one of the best known lakes in the state, is a longer drive away.
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- 13,932households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 12%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 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°. About 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rochester Skyhaven Airport weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Rochester
- Rochester School DistrictSchool district584FTE
- Three Phase Line ConstructionSubstation and switching station, power transmission line, construction420
- Albany International Corp ROC CampusAircraft auxiliary parts manufacturing414
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters376
- Demoulas Super Markets375
- Demoulas Super Markets206
- Cornerstone VNAHome health care agencies202
- Safran Aerospace CompositesAircraft engine and engine parts manufacturing168
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 26 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,485 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rochester’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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.
Rochester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rochester$406,606
- New Hampshire$510,937
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Rochester listings, and the typical home goes pending in 11 days — the market is cooling.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Rochester23.22%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Rochester11
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rochester65
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rochester35
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Rochester$395,255
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Rochester101.68%
Zip codes with a Rochester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rochester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Rochester
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03867 | Rochester | 22,732 | $1,810 | $401,117 |
| 03868 | Rochester | 6,133 | — | $414,520 |
| 03839 | Rochester | 4,279 | — | $419,712 |