Manchester at a glance
Manchester is the largest city in New Hampshire, with a 2020 census population of 115,644, and it sits on the Merrimack River about 51 miles north-northwest of Boston. The river is the reason the city exists. The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company built its brick mills along both banks between 1838 and 1915. At its peak the Millyard covered about 137 acres, with 30 buildings and up to 17,000 workers, and it was called the largest textile mill in the world. The company closed on Christmas Eve 1935, and for decades the mills sat mostly empty.
Today those same buildings hold technology firms, offices, the UNH Manchester campus at Pandora Mills, the SEE Science Center, the Millyard Museum and a growing number of apartments and condos. One block up the hill, Elm Street is the main street, with restaurants, the Palace Theatre, the SNHU Arena and Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, home of the Fisher Cats.
For buyers coming from Methuen, Lawrence or Haverhill, Manchester is the first big city north of the state line. Many Liriano Realty clients keep their jobs in Massachusetts and make the move anyway.
Neighborhoods and housing stock
Manchester is really several cities in one, split by the river.
The West Side covers Northwest Manchester, Notre Dame, Piscataquog, Rimmon Heights, Wolfe Park and the Mast Road area. Near the river it is dense: two-family and three-family houses, New England triple-deckers and small apartment buildings on tight lots. It gets more suburban as you climb toward Rock Rimmon, the cliff with a view over most of the city. Catholic Medical Center sits on McGregor Street in the middle of it all.
The North End, on the east bank north of downtown, has the larger Victorians and colonials on tree-lined streets around Webster Street and Stark Park. Straw/Smyth, near the Currier Museum of Art, mixes classic capes with updated colonials.
Downtown and the Millyard are where the loft-style condos and apartments are, inside converted mill buildings and newer construction close to Elm Street.
The East Side neighborhoods of Hallsville, Bakersville, Corey Square and Somerville are older, mid-density streets with plenty of multi-family housing around Elliot Hospital. The South End is mostly capes, ranches and colonials from the middle of the last century, and it usually prices below the North End.
So on any given week the Manchester listings include single-family capes, ranches and colonials, two-family and three-family houses, mill and downtown condos, and small apartment buildings that investors watch closely.
Getting around and daily life
Interstate 93 runs north and south along the east side of the city. Interstate 293 loops around the west and south, sharing its southern stretch with Route 101, which continues west toward Keene and east toward the Seacoast. Manchester-Boston Regional Airport is on the south edge of the city, reached from Exit 13 (Raymond Wieczorek Drive) on the F.E. Everett Turnpike.
The two hospitals are among the biggest employers in the city: Elliot Hospital, a 296-bed Level II trauma center on Elliot Way, and Catholic Medical Center at 100 McGregor Street, now part of HCA Healthcare. Southern New Hampshire University's campus runs along the Merrimack on the Manchester and Hooksett line, and UNH Manchester is in the Millyard.
For time outside, the city keeps Livingston Park and Dorrs Pond, Derryfield Park, Rock Rimmon Park, Stark Park, Piscataquog River Park, McIntyre Ski Area and Lake Massabesic at the eastern edge. The Piscataquog Trail crosses the Merrimack on a pedestrian bridge and ties the West Side to downtown.
The Manchester market today
Manchester's median sale price as of May 2026 sits at $425,000, with the typical sale between $340,000 and $540,000, and homes are going under agreement in about 24 days. It is a seller's market: more buyers than listings, and a well-priced home often has several offers before the first weekend is over.
New Hampshire has no state income tax on wages and no sales tax, so the city and its schools are funded mostly through property taxes. Manchester sets its own rate each fall. For 2025 Manchester's total tax rate is $20.24 per $1,000 of assessed value, and assessed value is about 64.8 percent of market value, so confirm both figures with the assessor's office when you make an offer, because they change every year.
Who Liriano Realty helps in Manchester
Liriano Realty is a bilingual English and Spanish brokerage with its office at 240 Pleasant St Unit: 10, Methuen, MA 01844, straight down I-93 from Manchester. Broker and owner Jefri Liriano is licensed in Massachusetts and New Hampshire (NH brokerage license 081961), so one team can sell your place in Lawrence and close on your next home in Manchester without handing you off.
In Manchester we most often work with first-time buyers shopping condos and single-family homes in the range above, owners of two-family and three-family houses who want to know what the building is worth now, and investors comparing Manchester with Lawrence or Lowell.
Start here
Ready to look? Read the Manchester, NH buyer's guide. Thinking about selling? Start with the Manchester, NH seller's guide and a free home evaluation. Bookmark this Manchester, NH page for updates, or contact Liriano Realty and call (617) 685-1515.