Strafford, New Hampshire.
Typical home $546,219 (+3.0% in a year). Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,760 (+159%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,826 +3%
- $530,393$546,219 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $169,293 +45%
- $376,925$546,219 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.
- Strafford$2,867
- New Hampshire$2,682
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Strafford, NH rose 3.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Strafford, Strafford County, New Hampshire
Strafford is a town of 4,230 people in Strafford County. Half its households earn more than $122,105 a year and half less, against $88,570 across Strafford County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 94% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 6% 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Strafford is a small rural town in southeastern New Hampshire, and most of the people who live here are older than in a typical American community. Nearly every home is lived in by its owner, and household incomes run well above the county's, with fewer people living below the poverty line than you might expect. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest. Over the year the town gets a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, the building trades, and banks, insurance and property. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and a number work from home. For those who commute, the drive to work is a long one, which fits a town spread out among woods and ponds. Across Strafford County, the biggest employers include the University of New Hampshire, Wentworth Douglass Hospital and Frisbie Memorial Hospital.
Things to do. Bow Lake and the Little River are in or beside town, so water is close at hand. Jenness Pond is a lake a short drive away, and Lake Winnipesaukee, one of the best known lakes in the state, is a longer drive. Pawtuckaway State Park, a protected area for walking and the outdoors, is also a longer drive.
Report a mistake
- 1,580households
- 40%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 36 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 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, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Strafford County
- University of New HampshireUniversity or college3,798
- Wentworth Douglass HospitalGeneral hospital1,929FTE
- Frisbie Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital771FTE
- Sig Sauer (Rochester)Firearms, small, manufacturing620
- Rochester School DistrictSchool district584FTE
- Dover School DistrictSchool district527FTE
- Three Phase Line ConstructionSubstation and switching station, power transmission line, construction420
- Oyster River Coop School DistrictSchool district417FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 92 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 14,547 people in all across the county; Strafford has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Strafford County, 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.
Strafford home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Strafford$546,219
- 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.
- Strafford10
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Strafford7
Zip codes with a Strafford address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Strafford — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.