Counting New Homes

How many new homes are being created? Where? In what price range?

Addressing the Upper Valley’s housing shortage requires good data about what housing exists. Counting New Homes uses novel methods to collect better data on new homes of all types – from single-family houses to tiny homes – for sharpest picture of what kinds and numbers of new homes are being created.

Methodology

Counting New Homes is an annual survey of certificate of occupancy or permit data from selected towns to count all types of new housing units: single-family, multi-family, apartments, accessory dwelling units, mobile homes, tiny homes, group homes, etc. Further details:

• Data is collected from a total of 29 towns each year – the Upper Valley’s 15 most populous towns and cities plus 14 of the 54 other towns in the region. 
• Data is collected every year from the 12 towns that contain 76% of the jobs and 50% of the population in our 69-town service area.  
• Data is collected on a rotating basis from another 12 towns each year, so that all 69 towns will be counted in a five-year cycle. 

Findings

Note: A new home, or place to live, is defined as any housing unit addition that was not previously available on that parcel and is considered a built structure by
municipal assessors or listers.