A buyer who opens the August 2026 county numbers sees a gap. Through the first eight months of 2026, the median list price for a single-family home in Carroll County was $592,450 and the median sales price was $549,900, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. That's a little over $42,000 between what sellers ask and what buyers pay. It's easy to bring that number into a Conway offer and assume the asking price has the same cushion built in.
In Conway it mostly doesn't. Through August 2026, Conway's median list price and median sales price were the same number, $525,000. The county gap is real. It's coming from somewhere else.
A County Median Is an Average of Different Markets
Carroll County takes in Conway, Bartlett, Madison and Freedom in the Mount Washington Valley. It also takes in Wolfeboro, Tuftonboro and Moultonborough on Lake Winnipesaukee. A county median list price is calculated over everything listed in all of those towns, and the median sales price over everything that closed in them.
When the expensive listings are piling up in one corner of the county, the list median rises faster than the sales median, even if every individual town is pricing sensibly. That's what the August 2026 county report shows. New listings were down 26.1% from August 2025, total inventory was flat at 349 homes, and the median list price rose 5.8% to $599,900 while the median sales price fell 3.3% to $551,000. Fewer homes came on the market, but the ones still for sale were priced higher.
One caution about these figures. NHAR reports median list price and median sales price as two separate medians, so the difference between them isn't a measured discount on any particular house. The matched measure is percent of original list price received, which compares each sale with that same home's first asking price. Both numbers come up below, and they answer different questions.
Where the Gap Actually Lives
NHAR's FastStats portal publishes town-level reports for some Carroll County towns. Here are the year-to-date figures through August 2026 for the towns that have reports.
Town, YTD through Aug. 2026 | Median list price | Median sales price | % of original list received | Months of supply, Aug. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Wolfeboro | $799,000 | $670,000 | 94.3% | 5.6 |
Tuftonboro | $819,000 | $736,750 | 93.2% | 8.8 |
Moultonborough | $732,500 | $700,000 | 94.7% | 4.0 |
Ossipee | $475,000 | $425,000 | 93.4% | 4.9 |
Wakefield | $489,900 | $439,900 | 97.3% | 4.0 |
Bartlett | $624,950 | $632,000 | 94.5% | 2.4 |
Madison | $530,000 | $480,000 | 95.2% | 4.3 |
Freedom | $589,500 | $574,500 | 97.1% | 3.5 |
Conway | $525,000 | $525,000 | 95.5% | 4.1 |
The biggest gaps are on the lake. In Wolfeboro, the year-to-date list median is $129,000 above the sales median. In Tuftonboro it's about $82,000, with 8.8 months of supply, more than double Conway's. Wolfeboro's August list median was $914,500 against an August sales median of $599,000, and its closed sales were down 25% year to date. High-priced inventory is building up in those towns and closing slowly, and that pulls the county list median up.
In Bartlett the list median is actually a little below the sales median, with 2.4 months of supply. That's tight for any market. In the Valley, Madison is the town with a visible gap, though a small one.
What Conway's Numbers Say About an Offer
Conway's matching medians mean that the homes coming on the market in Conway this year look a lot like the homes that sold there. Inventory supports the same reading. In August 2026, Conway had 52 single-family homes for sale, up 8.3% from a year earlier, and 4.1 months of supply, about the same as August 2025's 4.2. More choice, but no glut.
The matched measure tells you how much room there is in practice. Year to date through August 2026, Conway sellers received 95.5% of their original list price, which is slightly better than the county's 94.8%. On a $525,000 asking price, 95.5% works out to roughly $501,000. That's the typical concession from first list price to closing across all of 2026's Conway sales, including homes that sat and were reduced along the way. A fresh, well-priced listing may close closer to its asking price.
August alone looked even firmer, with 96.4% of original list received and homes taking a median of 18 days to sell. That month had only 14 closed sales, and NHAR warns that small samples can swing percentages. The year-to-date figures are the more reliable guide. On those, Conway's days on market were 51, the same as in 2025.
Buyers do have more leverage than a few years ago, and the Conway Daily Sun's September market story spelled out where. It described buyers negotiating harder, holding their ground on inspections and walking away from homes that don't meet expectations. In the COVID-era market, by contrast, it said buyers often waived inspections to compete. The same story put mortgage rates in the 6% to 7% range and called price the main obstacle. In Conway, that leverage shows up in repair credits and inspection outcomes more than in a large cut to a list price that already matches recent sales.
A Median That Has Drifted Below the State's
There's a second Conway pattern the county figures hide. NHAR's rolling 12-month median sales price shows how Conway has tracked against New Hampshire as a whole:
- January 2022: Conway $378,000, state $398,000, so Conway was about 95% of the state median
- January 2024: Conway $445,000, state $470,000, about 95%
- January 2025: Conway $455,000, state $518,000, about 88%
- January 2026: Conway $468,000, state $538,000, about 87%
The dollar gap grew from $20,000 to $70,000 in four years. From January 2025 to January 2026, the statewide rolling median rose $20,000 and Conway's rose $13,000.
2026 has partly made up ground. Conway's year-to-date median through August was up 7.1% over the same stretch of 2025. Still, a buyer comparing Conway with southern New Hampshire is comparing a town that, over the last two years, has priced closer to its own recent sales and further below the state.
The Rent Benchmark Behind T.J. Maxx
For buyers at the entry level of Conway's market, the alternative to buying changed this year. Riverline North Conway, behind T.J. Maxx, is 228 one- and two-bedroom apartments in eight three-story walk-up buildings. The Dolben Company develops and manages it, and construction began in May 2025. Dolben has projected that the property will be stabilized, meaning fully leased up, in 2027. Dolben announced pre-leasing in February 2026 and planned for the first residents to arrive in May.
In early October 2026, the Riverline leasing site showed units as available now, with starting rents of about $1,893 to $2,108 for one-bedroom plans and $2,448 to $2,507 for two-bedroom plans. Posted rents can change from month to month. They still give a household a published monthly figure to compare against a Conway purchase. Before Riverline, that comparison mostly ran through scattered private rentals. Robert Barsamian, the prior landowner, kept a separate 15-townhome for-sale parcel outside Dolben's project.
Other Conway projects are adding to the supply. Ridgeline sits across the Route 302 and North-South Road intersection from Walmart. Its developer is Continuum North Conway. The project opened 17 modular rental cottages in 2025. It has age-restricted retirement homes reported at starting prices of $750,000, and town approval for 148 market-rate condominiums with no age restriction. Common Court is a planned 105-unit affordable rental project, and the developer said all three phases had been approved. As these units fill, the number of households choosing between renting and buying in Conway is likely to grow. That puts more weight on whether a Conway listing is priced where its neighbors sold.
FAQs
Is there newer data than August 2026?
As of October 6, 2026, NHAR's public town and county reports run through August. Its most recent market summary, dated September 15, 2026, covers August.
Why do Jackson, Albany and Tamworth not appear in the table?
NHAR's FastStats portal doesn't publish town reports for those towns. Pricing in those towns has to be read from individual comparable sales.
Does 95.5% mean every Conway home sells about 4.5% under asking?
No. It's a typical figure across all of Conway's 91 single-family sales through August 2026. A home priced to match recent sales nearby may close closer to asking. A home that came on high and was reduced is part of what pulls the average down.
To find out where a specific Conway listing sits against the 2026 sales around it, and how much of an inspection response it can absorb, talk to Pinkham Real Estate. Contact our team to start your Mount Washington Valley search, and we'll put the town-level numbers next to the house you're considering.