Across the country, communities are contending with a deepening housing affordability crisis. Increasing housing prices, low housing stock, and shifting demographic patterns have stretched housing systems beyond their capacity. As of 2023, only 15.5 percent of homes for sale were considered affordable to the typical U.S. household, and rental costs have risen by more than 30 percent since 2020.
While these issues play out on a national scale, state-specific constraints and market conditions make this a contextual issue. In New Hampshire, the crisis is particularly acute. The state regularly reports some of the nation’s lowest vacancy rates, with demand far outpacing supply across both owner-occupied and rental markets. A combination of limited new development and changing household needs has created structural pressures that threaten long-term economic competitiveness, workforce retention, and community resilience.
New Hampshire Housing conducted a statewide Housing Needs Assessment in 2023. This study found that New Hampshire’s population is growing older, the average household size is declining, and the number of available homes and rental units is not keeping up with current demand, let alone fulfilling projected needs. Many conditions have changed since 2023, most significantly a shortage of both rental and owner housing and the inability to afford renting or owning a home. Owing in part to economic conditions, in part to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and in part to an aging population, communities across New Hampshire are experiencing housing shortfalls.
With the objective of analyzing various housing scenarios, the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs commissioned ESI to develop a dashboard that estimates the fiscal impacts of building new units. The dashboard allows users to input details of a hypothetical housing development and informs them of the municipal costs and revenues estimated for that project. This tool has been developed as a resource for municipal decision makers and residents alike. The dashboard reframes the often hard to understand fiscal implications of housing in a dynamic, interactive platform that simplifies complex data. Designed with usability in mind, the Housing Needs Dashboard allows users to engage directly with localized data on municipal costs, revenues, and taxpayer impacts.
The New Hampshire dashboard serves a broad audience beyond technical specialists. It uses clear visualizations and supporting documents, such as the User Guide and Technical Memo, to help non-experts work with fiscal housing data relevant to their communities. Local planners, residents, and business owners can navigate the platform without special training or advanced analytical skills. This approach lowers the barrier to understanding housing-related estimates and supports more informed public discussions. The platform presents estimates rather than prescriptive decisions, so users can apply the data to complement their own planning and analysis. The design emphasizes plain language and intuitive graphics to make complex financial concepts easier to understand. Tooltips and step-by-step guidance walk users through key metrics, such as estimated revenues and expenditures per housing type. By combining these resources, the dashboard empowers a wider range of community members to engage in meaningful conversations about housing policy and local budgets.
The dashboard provides users with the ability to filter results by municipality, unit count, and by housing type. It distinguishes between single-family, multifamily, and middle density housing, and between market rate, affordable and age restricted housing (the last one only for multifamily). This feature allows users to produce results that are representative of differences in municipalities and associated revenue and cost structures.
The tool is designed to capture how higher population density reduces the cost per person to provide public services—what’s often called economies of scale. For example, plowing snow costs less per household when many homes share the same street. In the model, each additional person added to a household or building receives a marginally lower per capita cost estimate. This “density discount” applies to residents in middle-density and multifamily housing categories.
The dashboard’s interactive design encourages users to explore the data actively. When users adjust filters for geography or housing categories, the visualizations update immediately. This instant feedback helps them test assumptions, spot trends, and build a deeper understanding of local fiscal conditions. The platform also highlights changes dynamically, so users can track which selections drive differences in the estimates. While the dashboard does not replace comprehensive planning or site-specific feasibility studies, it offers a consistent, data-driven reference point. By providing a shared set of estimates, it supports better coordination among municipal governments, community organizations, and other stakeholders involved in housing policy.
The Fiscal Housing Calculator represents one piece of a broader shift toward evidence-based housing policy. As affordability challenges intensify, especially in states with tight housing markets like New Hampshire, this tool helps close the gap between broad policy goals and local decisions. By translating complex fiscal data into accessible, actionable information, the dashboard gives communities a practical foundation for evaluating trade-offs and planning for growth.
Turning insights into results requires collaboration. Municipal leaders, residents, and other stakeholders can use this resource to inform policies that balance housing needs, fiscal health, and long-term economic resilience. While no single tool can resolve these challenges alone, integrating data-driven resources with thoughtful policy and sustained engagement creates a stronger path forward. The dashboard also offers a scalable model other states can adapt as they work to build more transparent, data-driven approaches to their own housing challenges.
Samriddhi Khare, Analyst | Skhare@econsultsolutions.com
Samriddhi Khare has experience in spatial analytics and data visualization, as well as design. Previously, she was a research fellow supporting ESI’s thought leadership initiative, ESI Center for the Future of Cities. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving her Master’s in City Planning with a focus on spatial analytics.
