Are you interested in moving back to Portsmouth in the future? If so, you better start saving up now. 

New housing construction projects have skyrocketed in Portsmouth, and so have the prices. A lot of this new construction has been called affordable, but how affordable is it? 

“I’ve been in Portsmouth since 2003 and affordable housing is one of the biggest talking points. We need more workforce and affordable housing,” Lexi Leddy, a local realtor from Lexi Leddy Real Estate, said. She explained that when most people think of affordable housing they think of low income, but that’s not always the case. 

According to the website Local Housing Solutions, the definition of affordable housing is, “housing that a household can pay while still having money left over for necessities like food, transportation, and health care. This means that what is considered “affordable” depends on a household’s income.”

“Workforce housing is for nurses, teachers, and people with jobs who are just trying to get by,” Leddy said. She went on to talk about the price range of apartments in Portsmouth. Of course it depends on what part of town, the size of the apartment, and the length of your stay, but, “On average, apartment rent is $2,500 a month, on the low end. For a nicer apartment, you would be looking at around $4,500 per month,” continued Leddy. 

Over the years, we have seen Portsmouth become popular. More people want to move here, but there is not much available on the market. This is why we have recently seen so many apartment buildings and housing units being constructed. 

“It’s simply supply and demand, and we have a lot of demand but don’t have the supply which is why it gets so expensive,” explained Lexi Leddy. She pointed out that it is extremely tricky for first-time buyers trying to find something in their price range. Because there is a lack of inventory, prices go up, but the amount of people looking to buy does not. 

According to Jeff McMenemy in a Seacoast Online article from March 4, Joanna Kelley, one of the leaders of the Blue Ribbon Housing Committee, and Portsmouth’s Assistant Mayor, is working with the rest of the committee to develop affordable housing, most recently discussing this possibility at  Robert J. Lister Academy. 

Some committees have been working on creating cheaper housing options, such as the Portsmouth Housing Authority, which opened 60 units of workforce housing last year, and the Housing Blue Ribbon Committee, according to the Planning and Sustainability on City Of Portsmouth Website, “Established in February 2024, this Committee is charged with addressing housing challenges within the City.”

However, if you scroll through apartment listings on websites like Zillow, you won’t find much for less than $2,000 a month. Regardless of the price, some of these apartments are still called “affordable housing” because they are cheaper than renting right in downtown Portsmouth or owning a house. 

Shannon Parsons, a social studies teacher at Portsmouth High School, talks about how it was growing up and buying a house in Portsmouth. “I choose to live in a smaller home to be able to afford to live in this community,” Parsons said.

Parsons was born in Portsmouth but lived in Kittery for the first ten years of her life. Her high school experience was different from ours as the schools were more diversified. 

“When the Pease Air Force base closed, it’s like 50% of the high school left,” Parsons said and commented how this had a great impact on the demographic of Portsmouth. “As it turned around, that’s when I saw that sort of gentrification begin.”

According to McMenemy’s article, Jo Kelley said: “‘At some point, we’re not just talking about low income, we’re talking about people with middle incomes not being able to afford to live here.’”

Eric Chasse, a math teacher at PHS, agreed that Portsmouth is having a housing crisis. “It’s the whole seacoast, not just Portsmouth,” he comments. He says that something needs to be done with the housing in Portsmouth, there is a lot of demand but not a lot of supply. He also notes that the new affordable housing is “hardly affordable”. 

Chasse lived in Portsmouth his whole life but moved to Greenland in 2015, and he says prices were already on the rise when he bought his house. He mentions how downtown Portsmouth is similar to a “mini Boston” and says it is, “Crazy to see how much has changed around here,” reminiscing on the Portsmouth he lived in while growing up.  

For more information related to the issue of housing in the City of Portsmouth, please visit their website.