LACONIA — Four-season resort areas like the Lakes Region are attracting more mobile workers willing to pay handsomely for their piece of the good life by the lakes and mountains.
For those with the opportunity, many high-earning city jobs can be done from anywhere there's a connected personal computer. Those who already own a second home far from their residences in metro areas such as Boston can now stay in them for more than holiday vacations and weekend getaways — only now they get paid.
“Thursday is the new Friday," said Frank Roche, president of Roche Realty Group in Laconia and Meredith. He noted that heavy traffic patterns entering the region from the south have shifted from just Fridays and Mondays to all week, as hybrid work patterns mean workers and their families stay in their seasonal homes and condos more often, and for longer, all year long.
That flexible-work lifestyle benefit is not lost on people from outside the area who want to have their well-heeled work and lifestyle layer cake and eat it, too. They are gladly trading the beeping horns of city life and arduous commutes for the serene morning call of the loons. What began in 2020 as a reaction to COVID pandemic lockdowns has become an entrenched and consequential shift in work, and therefore housing, patterns across the nation, especially in resort areas.
In many ways, the Lakes Region has been shaped by hybrid lifestyle housing patterns for decades. Snowbird retirees have long sought the best of what the lakes and mountains have to offer — as long as they can winter somewhere else. They traded their city homes for multiple seasonal living abodes — in many cases split between Florida and New England — once they were no longer tied to their jobs and primary residences.
But this time, the housing disruption is coming from more than retirees and summer residents driving up the demand for the best of what the Granite State has to offer. And the quality of life is now more broadly attractive than ever, and not just from the natural beauty and unspoiled rural character, Roche said. In survey after survey, best-of list after best-of list, New Hampshire shines on such metrics as livability, health, longevity, opportunity, taxes, poverty rates, low crime, and high median incomes, he said.
Indeed, the lifestyle and work upheavals that COVID-19 unleashed in 2020 have become long-term residency impacts that may dramatically change the city and surrounding region more than at any time since logging, local heavy industry and farming rapidly declined in the mid-1900s. Those changes paved the way for the area to grow more dependent on tourism and to emerge as a year-round resort destination. Remote work is helping to make that transition more complete.
According to recent American Community Survey, an annual demographics survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, those able to work remotely are moving their households at a significantly higher rate than in-person workers, and that rate has spiked since 2019. Large, expensive cities on the U.S. coasts saw many of these highly paid remote workers move away to such places as scenic vacation spots — like those in New England.
“As work shifted from being a synonym for ‘going into an office’ to meaning ‘delivering results,’ people have had the option to move to desirable places. For some, 'desirable' meant being closer to the activities they enjoy, being close to family, relocating to an appealing climate, or turning a retirement dream into a current reality,” said Amy Haworth, founder and chief executive officer of human capital management consultancy Nobody Makes it Alone, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“The impact on people’s lives cannot be underestimated,” she said. “Instead of waiting to live their best lives, we have seen people pick up in droves, and the impossible became possible. While some locals may feel the influx and the shift in the local culture as new people and perspectives move in, the opportunity to do one’s job in proximity to what they desire to do in their lives is a powerful new calculus of the wellbeing of our population.”
Of course, as more remote workers eagerly buy up what were once vacation-only properties in an effort to improve their wellbeing, it further drives demand beyond supply and jacks up housing costs for everyone in the area. Both short- and long-term housing trends now point to continued high demand for land and properties across northern New England, but especially the lakes and mountains.
Houses of all sizes and in all locations, like this one in Gilford, are selling quickly. (Dana Gardener photo/for The Laconia Daily Sun)
In July, for example, the median cost of a house in New Hampshire rose to $480,000. In the Seacoast region, it hit $900,000, Roche said. In a highly unusual confluence of factors, real estate prices are currently at all-time highs even as available units and closed sales are very low, here and across the Northeast.
And still they come — from such areas as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and as far away as California and Florida. There should be no expectation that things will go back to way they were before the pandemic; these workers are determined to hold onto their remote worker status. Estimates are that as many as 30% of jobs can be done remotely, and that number may rise as newer technologies like artificial intelligence gain ground.
“In 46 years as a Realtor, I've never seen people coming from outlying states as we’ve seen in the last couple of years,” said Roche of the Lakes Region’s burgeoning appeal.
What’s more, the resulting significant changes in affordability have come with unprecedented speed. In just a few years, more people have been priced out of the Lakes Region, by both escalating rents and spiraling purchase prices.
For example, a house that cost $500,000 two years ago, with a mortgage for 80% of the cost at the then-national average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 2.86%, came with a $1,700 monthly payment due. Now, with the national 13.5% increase in home prices, that same house costs $568,000. A surge in recent mortgage rates to 7.18% therefore means a monthly payment of $3,077 for the same house.
“That is throwing young people out of the market,” said Roche. “It’s hard to hire workers. The young people can’t enter the area.”
So while the current real estate boom bodes well for established residents and developers, as home values rise, and for those that can afford at seemingly any price to move here, it means escalating cost-of-living woes for those who aren’t able to pay for homes and rents using local pay scales. That’s if they can find any vacant places to live, work and raise a family.
Because local rents, too, are at record highs. Some workers in Laconia, for example, are finding better prices — albeit with long commutes — by living in such cities as Concord and Portsmouth. Alysia Souto, 33, was living in Portsmouth when she began as a barber four months ago at the Polished & Proper Barbershop & Shave Parlor downtown. When the commute proved difficult, she tried to find a place to live nearer to the City on the Lakes, but could not at a price she could afford. She instead moved to Concord and commutes 35 minutes each way up and down Route 106 daily.
“I wanted to put down roots here, but it’s tough to do,” she said. “It’s hard to believe, but it’s now cheaper to live in the bigger cities to the south than it is in the Lakes Region.”
Alysia Souto, 33, works as a barber at Polished & Proper Barbershop & Shave Parlor downtown. She was commuting from the Seacoast, and wanted to find somewhere closer to Laconia to live. She couldn't in her price range, and instead moved to Concord, where she still commutes 35 minutes, each way, daily. (Dana Gardner photo/for The Laconia Daily Sun)
On a brighter note, the shifts in housing and work trends are helping those with a seasonal legacy in the region expand the use of their properties. Because more employers are embracing remote and hybrid work models, property owners can expand their once part-time use of cherished lake sites into full-time, remote-work homes.
The fifth generation of his family at the same Alton Bay lakeside lot and cottage, Evan Burleigh, 43, has made the onetime camp his full-time residence along with his wife, Bronwyn Rose Hazard, 36. As the couple is expecting their first child early next year, the Lakes Region will be where they now plan to raise their family, they said. Both have remote work jobs to support themselves.
Burleigh, formerly of Braintree, Massachusetts, performs his information technology training job with a Silicon Valley-based company, Cadence Design Systems, Inc., of San Jose, California, while living on Lake Winnipesaukee. In late 2021, he sold his condo in metro Boston and made the move north. Many of his workmates are also remote.
“There’s no need to be in the office,” he said. "Most of our team is in India. So even if I was working at headquarters in California, I’d be remote anyway. My boss works from home in Massachusetts. And another team member is based in metro London.”
Burleigh and Hazard expect that raising their family and having the flexibility to work remotely will make them better workers, better parents, and better able to juggle their responsibilities and total expenses. A theater educator and performing arts specialist, Hazard said, “It’s outdated and obsolete for everyone to be in the office all the time."
While the couple said they fear that income inequality will worsen in the region due to the new cost of housing, they welcome the idea of more people from more places making the Lakes Region home. “I’d love to see more diversity in cultures because I want my kids exposed to that,” Hazard said.
"I'm lucky to be at a company that pays based on a California cost of living,” said Burleigh. "I’m in a much better situation being here in New Hampshire."
Yet, a less desirable part of the California cost of living impact, homelessness, is also being seen in unprecedented ways in the Lakes Region. And the spiraling costs of housing here are only expected to uproot more people unable to live in local homes or apartments on local wages.
The cost of securing a one-bedroom apartment in Laconia is high and getting higher, forcing people to make the difficult choice of moving elsewhere or finding themselves without a place to live at all, said Celyne Godbout, director of residential services for Lakes Region Mental Health Center.
The current average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in the city, without utilities included, is $1,500 per month. Landlords often require documentation of an income three times that amount, or $54,000 per year, to move in.
Anyone making less than $50,000 — and much more for a family — are being priced out of the Lakes Region altogether, said Godbout. People experiencing mental illness often find it difficult to hold full-time jobs. But even for those who are eligible for public housing assistance, the prospects of finding a place on the open market are bleak, she said.
Housing assistance vouchers are currently available for up to $1,015 per month for one-bedrooms. “There are literally no apartments at those prices, so that keeps people homeless,” Godbout said.
If housing prices continue to rise or even plateau, those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder will not be able to live in Laconia, she said. For those current residents who have leases that come up for renewal at higher prices, or find themselves out of work, the chances of becoming homeless are growing, along with the average costs of housing, said Godbout.
Long-term shifts in homebuying behavior, work location flexibility and population demographics around retiring all point to the Lakes Region remaining a highly desirable location for those with the means and the high-paying jobs they can take with them. Over time, the effects of climate change may also make northern New England a desirable go-to place to escape some perils from fires, floods, coastal erosion and persistent heat waves.
Yet another trend that could contribute to continued elevated real estate prices in resort areas: The short-term rental craze. Individuals, companies and even private equity firms have been lining up to buy suitable houses to take off the market to then rent on Airbnb and similar services, said Roche. Their high per-night costs generate cash flows often enough to cover high mortgage payments while the owners also enjoy property appreciation benefits over time.
Buying homes for short-term rentals is a big and growing business in the Lakes Region.
"Investors are buying homes as investments and as rentals,” said Roche. “It sucks up inventory that would be for first-time buyers or those looking to move.” Roche said he knows of one buyer from Massachusetts who alone owns eight such short-term rental-only homes.
Together, these sea changes in the economics of Lakes Region housing mean a lot of people with a lot of money — and some very attractive long-term incentives — are looking to buy and to move to where the quality of life, and profits, remain high. These trends are well under way and unlikely to reverse. Currently, said Roche, there are some 30 properties for sale on Lake Winnipesaukee, together with a median asking price of $3.7 million. On nearby Squam Lake, the median asking price is almost $7 million.
“Five years ago, I never would have believed it,” said Roche of the escalating prices for top-tier Lakes Region properties. "Will it change? Yes, this is not sustainable. Affordability is the lowest ever in history, here and across the nation.”
Still, Roche believes the appeal of the region and rationale to buy here at high prices is here to stay, calling the big lake "the Lake Tahoe of the Northeast." He also believes remote workers will continue to flock here.
"You will see more hybrid jobs,” he said. "Commuting is no fun. Why live in a city when you can be on a lake or in the mountains?”
Like other desirable northeast resort areas that have seen gentrification — from Nantucket to Cape Cod to the seacoasts of southern Maine and New Hampshire — pressure will build to expand the housing stock, but that has often come predominantly in the form of high-end housing, because that’s where the demand remains strong from a growing cohort of potential buyers from far and wide with deep pockets.
"The only way to change things is to increase the amount of housing, and not just mansions on Lake Winnipesaukee,” said Burleigh.
Even if the housing market corrects and values decline over the next several years, as some economists predict, indications are that the long-term trends will keep demand for Lakes Region housing high. Based on the rapid changes of the last two years alone, the Lakes Region is surely poised for significantly change in the character of who can live here — for better and worse.
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Dana Gardner is a freelance writer working remotely in Gilford.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
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