Phone: (603) 524-0747
Fax: (603) 527-2514
lharvey@laclt.org
www.laclt.org

Counties Served: Belknap

Incorporated: 1988

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Breaking News! LACLT named
Business of the Year for New Hampshire

Located in central New Hampshire, Belknap County is the heart of the Lakes Region. The Lakes Region is one of New England's oldest and most popular tourist destinations. Belknap County is a striking combination of pristine lakes and mountains, small towns and cities, rural scenic byways, and traditional main streets with historic country stores. Belknap County is widely recognized as a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Laconia is the county seat and provides residents with easy access to jobs and services such as shopping, banking, health care, social services, and public transportation.

Due to the beauty of the area and its proximity to recreation areas and major cities, Laconia and the surrounding towns have grown at a rapid pace. Real estate values have escalated, dramatically increasing rents and resulting in a vacancy rate of near zero. Between the lack of inventory and the sale prices of newly constructed homes, the average sale price of homes has risen at a rate outpacing the rise of incomes. This has effectively shut out many renters from moving into home ownership.

The local economy continues to generate strong and growing demand for low wage workers. High paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced with low-paying retail and service industry jobs. Over half of the new jobs created since l998 have paid wages that have not kept pace with housing costs. The employment projections through 2006 further highlight the discrepancy between housing costs and incomes. Ten of the twenty occupations projected to add the most jobs in NH through 2006 pay median hourly wages under $10.