Affordability

Kris Levesque did not come to this campaign from a boardroom. He has lived in public housing. He has been homeless. He knows what it is to sit at a kitchen table and decide which bill can wait. Kristopher spent 13 years working in social services, helping other people find their footing. Today he and his wife, Christina, run a small business in Concord. He has seen the cost of living from three sides: as someone who could not keep up, as someone helping neighbors who could not, and as a business owner balancing budgets. What he learned is simple. Most people who are struggling in Ward 9 are doing everything right. They work. They budget. They still fall behind, because the big costs keep rising faster than paychecks do. Kris believes everyone who works hard deserves a fair shot at a stable life in the city they call home.

The squeeze, in numbers

The pressure comes from every direction at once, and the numbers bear that out.

• Rent: the statewide median for a two-bedroom apartment reached $1,833 a month in 2024, with almost nothing vacant. About half of New Hampshire renters pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.[3]

• Property taxes: Concord's rate rose 5 percent in 2025, to $29.11 per $1,000. The owner of a $350,000 home now pays about $10,000 a year.[4]

• Child care: a year of infant care averages $16,462. For a family with an infant and a toddler, the bill is about $30,000, roughly a quarter of a typical married couple's income.[5]

• Healthcare: nearly 48,000 Granite Staters rely on Granite Advantage, the state's Medicaid expansion. New work requirements start in 2027, and new monthly premiums are on hold but still in state law.[6, 7]

• Wages: New Hampshire's minimum wage is still the federal $7.25 an hour. A bill to raise it was tabled in the House in March 2026