Laconia Sees Boom In Vacation Home Market

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Weirs Beach is a main attraction in Laconia, which has seen a bit of a boom in its second home market.

Here at StateImpact, we’re interested in how second homes contribute to New Hampshire’s economy.  With ten percent of the state’s housing stock made up of vacation homes, only two other states have a higher proportion secondary homes–Maine and Vermont.

As part of a series last summer on how the vacation home economy works in the state, we used data from the US Census to create an interactive map that shows, town by town, where these homes are concentrated.  (You can check it out here.)

In that same post, we noted that New Hampshire saw a net increase in vacation homes of 13.3 percent, or 7,497 units statewide, since 2000.

Now, as Michael Kitch reports for The Laconia Daily Sun, Laconia saw a much more dramatic increase over the past decade:

“According to the United States Census, seasonal homes accounted for  nearly two-thirds of the increase in the housing stock here during the past decade and now represent almost one of every four dwelling units in the city.”

While Kitch notes the permanent population of Laconia dropped by 2.8 percent:

“During the decade, the number of seasonal homes rose 55-percent…to 2,293 in 2010…

Meanwhile, the number of owner-occupied homes rose by just 41 units, or one-percent…to 3,860 in 2010 while the number of occupied rental units grew by 73, or 2.5-percent…to 2,978…”

As we found last summer, there are many New Hampshire communities that have a much denser stock of second homes.  But it’s nonetheless interesting that Laconia has seen its stock of vacation homes rise faster than primary residences, while its permanent population has declined.