100 Homes in Londonderry, Sandown Narrows, Chester Returns

Two separate housing proposals on the same stretch of Rockingham Road in Londonderry add up to 100 homes. A subdivision in Sandown just got smaller. And the rental project that had half of Chester in a meeting room this month is back in front of the Planning Board Wednesday, for the first real test of a rule voters passed two years ago.

None of these are approved. All three are worth watching.

Londonderry, NH100 homes are proposed along one stretch of Rockingham Road

Two unrelated applications, half a mile apart on Route 28, would add up to 100 new homes if both go through.

The 196 and 198 Rockingham Road application had its formal public hearing on June 3. The 225 Rockingham Road proposal has been in front of the Planning Board across three separate hearings this year, in February, March, and April.

Neither is close to a vote. But two proposals landing on the same corridor at the same time is the real story here, more than either one alone. If both move forward as filed, this one stretch of road absorbs 100 new households.

Follow 196 & 198 Rockingham Road and 225 Rockingham Road on the tracker, where I keep both updated as they move.

Sandown, NHNoah Estates narrows from 23 homes to 21

Noah Estates showed up in its first public notice as a 23-home subdivision. During a Planning Board hearing in May, the applicant’s representative said a yield analysis found the property actually supports 21 homes, and the current filings use that number.

The application also includes a request to disturb 1,645 square feet of forested wetland for the road that would provide access to the site. Both the subdivision and the wetlands review were continued to September 15.

Twenty-one new single-family homes is a meaningful number for a town Sandown’s size, and it’s still moving through review, not close to final.

Follow Noah Estates on the tracker.

Chester, NHThe Village at Buxton Farm is back Wednesday, and it’s the first real test of Chester’s rental ordinance

The Village at Buxton Farm is filed under Chester’s Fair Market Rental Housing ordinance, which voters adopted in 2024. This is the first application to actually reach the Planning Board under that ordinance, which makes whatever happens here the template for how the next one gets judged.

Chester doesn’t have much rental housing to begin with, and this proposal would add 34 units of it, not as an apartment building but as detached homes on a private road on roughly 20 acres of former farmland. The hearing has been open since April, included a site walk in July, and was continued from August 5 to August 26 at the applicant’s request.

Nothing here has been approved. It’s an active application, and I’ll update it the moment the board takes real action.

Follow Buxton Farm on the tracker.

I’m reporting what’s been proposed and where each one stands in the process. I’m not arguing for or against any of them, and I’m not speculating about who ends up living in any of them. If you want to weigh in, the hearing dates above are where to do that, not here.

These three are just what’s active this week. I keep a running list of everything I’m tracking, across every town I work in, on the development tracker — it updates as projects move, not once a month.

Market SignalYour listing has about two weeks of leverage, then the market stops negotiating

I pulled 25,201 closed sales across Southern NH, the Merrimack Valley, and the North Shore to see when the market actually decides a home’s fate. The answer: fast, and it rarely reverses. Homes that go under contract in their first week sell above their original asking price 73% of the time. Homes that take 31 to 60 days manage it 15% of the time. Past 60 days, under 8%.

It isn’t that slow listings sell for slightly less — the outcome flips entirely. The pricing conversation has to happen before the sign goes in the yard, not after a quiet first weekend.

See what’s happening in your own town and price band on Market Intelligence.

Rob