Dec. 21 -- Granite Staters who bought a median-priced home in late 2024 found themselves with mortgage payments over $3,000 a month, and that only included principal and interest.
But they also might have heard a new report out this week showing New Hampshire's middle class earning significantly more than the national average.
The report defined middle-income for households in New Hampshire as ranging from $108,470 -- second highest in the country, and up 30% from 2019 -- to $180,784, higher than the national average of between $75,225 and $125,375, according to ConsumerAffairs.
"Like Massachusetts, New Hampshire's middle class earned much higher wages than the rest of the country in 2023," it said.
For many, New Hampshire's economy offers a tug-of-war between above-average wages and sky-high housing costs.
To buy a house priced at the statewide median, it would have cost a family around $2,700 a month in January and nearly $3,100 in November -- $383 more a month -- assuming a 5% down payment. Home prices and interest rates both were higher in November.
But Realtor Moe Archambault was optimistic for home buyers for 2025.
"I think the rates are going to be poised to drop, so people who waited are going to get lower interest rates," said Archambault, principal of Moe Marketing Realty Group in Laconia.
That assessment was given before the Federal Reserve this week cut a key interest rate as expected but said it forecast fewer rate drops next year than earlier envisioned.
'Still pretty strong'
The state's unemployment rate barely moved all year, staying at 2.5% or 2.6% for the first 11 months of 2024.
New Hampshire had the fourth-lowest unemployment rate in the country in October, behind only South Dakota, Vermont and North Dakota.
"The economy, overall, I think still is pretty strong," said Greg David, economist at the state Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.
The November jobs report showed 11,640 more Granite Staters working than a year earlier and 560 fewer residents unemployed, according to Employment Security.
New Hampshire retailers had high notes through the year.
The total solar eclipse that left some North Country towns, including Lancaster, darkened for several minutes on April 8 also attracted many tourists to eat in restaurants or stay overnight. Business owners made the most of the opportunity with special sales, souvenirs and more as thousands of people trekked north to experience the eclipse in the "path of totality."
As the season turned toward Christmas shopping, many small-business owners reported promising sales in 2024.
"I'm selling more gold chains than I ever had," said Cheryl Scaramuzzi, store manager and buyer at Capitol Craftsman Romance Jewelers in Concord.
And the jobs market remains bright for many.
"I think for the job seekers, there's plenty of jobs out there," said Barry Roy, regional president at Robert Half, a staffing agency with offices in Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth.
The work dynamic, however, has shifted, Roy said.
Over the past year to 18 months, "a lot of companies have been asking people to come into the office more or their location more than they had in the past," Roy said.
"Some remote jobs are now hybrid. I think job seekers are missing out when they're still living in the mindset that there's a ton of remote work out there."
Bankruptcies and credit card delinquencies both rose during 2024.
"That's signs of the cookie crumbling," Archambault said.
New Hampshire saw a 17.7% rise in the number of bankruptcies filed during the year ending Sept. 30 compared with the same timeframe a year earlier, outpacing the national average of 16.2%.
Credit card delinquencies have risen in the most recent figures for New Hampshire, but they remain below the national average, according to David, the state economist.
Foreclosures in the first half of 2024 were 6% lower than the first half of 2023, but nearly 6% higher than the first half of 2022, according to David.
Meanwhile, the ranks of people on the lowest ends of the economic spectrum are growing.
The number of people experiencing homelessness surged 52% in 2023 over the previous year -- the highest percentage gain of any state, according to a new report out this week.
The national average increased 12%.
The number of homeless in New Hampshire grew from 1,605 homeless statewide in 2022 to 2,441 in 2023 as measured on a single night in January, according to a report from the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness.
"It will take a lot of continued work to reverse these trends, but we know that homelessness is a solvable issue when the systems addressing it have ample resources and support," said Jennifer Chisholm, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness.