Information on New Hampshire

[cynsaun]

My husband and I are looking at moving to southern New Hampshire next year, and I was wondering what anyone could tell me about this beautiful part of the country!

Of course we have been up to look many times, but it is so hard when you are so far away to make that sort of decision without additional input from people that already live there!

We have been looking at Bedford, but the prices seem to be out of control! Some of our friends have told us to look at Bow, Brentwood, Londonderry, Montvernon, and New Boston.

Thanks!!

 

[edcrbnsoul]

I know Londonderry is nice dont know about others...I live in Merrimack...next town to Bedford I've been here 3 yrs and like it alot my sister has been here 10 yrs also very happy here, they have been adding alot of new homes prices not as high as Bedford http://www.ci.merrimack.nh.us/

 

[cynsaun]

Thanks! I will check out that site. We are excited to move up there, it's so beautiful!!!

 

[phorsenuf]

Where is your job located? That will be a big help in determining where the best areas are. Sometimes you "can't get there from here" (well, not directly! LOL)

I'm in Concord. Very convenient to alot of thngs and areas. Housing prices are kinda high, but not as bad as some of the areas you mentioned.

Will be happy to help....ask away!

 

[cynsaun]

My husband is a pilot and flies out of MHT, so we would like to stay as close to that as possible. We have been told that Concord is a nice place to live, and we should look around that area. How are taxes, schools, drive to the airport?

It kills us because we had looked in Bedford back in 1999, but chose to go to North Carolina instead. BIG MISTAKE!!!! The housing prices up there have skyrocketed, and down here they have remained stagnant and actually gone down! UGH!

 

[NHAnn]

Originally posted by cynsaun
We have been told that Concord is a nice place to live, and we should look around that area. How are taxes, schools, drive to the airport?

I've lived in Concord over 20 years. It's about 20 miles down the highway to MHT . Longer at rush hours. So if you live 10 minutes from the highway, it would take you about 1/2 hour if traffic is OK.
City of Concord website

Bow is an adjacent community, but completely different in character from Concord. Bow is a small, affluent town with very little commercial base. Concord is a small city (the State capital) with a much more diverse population and range of neighborhoods/types of housing. Concord IS a great place to live IMHO. The school system is good, the property taxes are high...they are high everywhere in NH..see next paragraph....

There is a fundamental problem in NH ~ in that there is no State income or sales tax. Education is funded by local property taxes and there is great disparity between local school systems (everything from facilities to programs to teachers).

There are also a lot of differences, from place to place (even towns right next to each other) as far as services like solid waste (trash) removal and other city/town services. So in addition to the school system, you need to have a clear idea of your wants and needs when you are comparing properties in different towns/cities.

New Boston is a small, more rural area...check out Goffstown and Dunbarton in that area as well.

Londonderry is nice, but I think you will find more for your money in housing north of the area as opposed to south of it. Brentwood I think is further east towards seacoast area, I'm not very familiar with it.

Do you have (or plan to have) children?? That issue, and just the general "lifestyle" you are seeking...in terms of services and amenties and conveniences...would really influence the type of input I would offer you! Please feel free to PM me!

 

[DVC-Don]

Lived in Milford and Manchester, New Hampster back in the 1980's. (Worked in Amherst) Mount Vernon is wonderful. I didn't, and still do not like the south eastern corner. Too much like Massachusetts there.

 

[monarchsfan16]

NH is a great place to live. I live in one of the towns bordering Manchester. Definitely look into Londonderry, it borders Manchester and has a pretty good school system. LOL, and I hear all the reports, since my mom teaches there. Bedford is VERY expensive, and the high school that the kids go to from there is not the best. They get bussed into Manchester, to one of the 3 high schools, and it's not the best of them. Neither is the high school that the kids from Hooksett and Candia get bussed to (if schools are an issue, watch out for the tuition/bussing agreements). I live in Auburn. We go to the best of the Manchester high schools. However, Auburn is one of the more expensive places to live, although not nearly as much as Bedford. Londonderry, and Litchfield are convienient to Manchester, with traffic that's not as bad, because of the back roads from there to the airport.

 

[marlasmom]

Merrimack has much lower taxes than many of the surrounding towns. However, you will find the further north you go the cheaper. Schools are good pretty much everywhere (with the possible exception of Manchester itself and the towns that send kids to Manchester). I LOVED living in NH. It really is God's country.

 

[pjlla]

My first suggestion.... are you sure you want to do this??? Are you ready for a New England winter? I have lived in NE my entire life.... 27 years in MA, last 12 years here in NH. And while I would very much miss my family (parents/in-laws mostly in MA) I would happily move away from the snow!

If you are determined to make this move.... we welcome you to NH with open arms!!:thewave: Personally, I would not live directly in Manchester, especially if you have school-aged children. I am not fond of the Manchester school system. I may get flamed for saying that, but it is my opinon.

NHAnn mentioned several rural towns that are near Concord and Manchester, including New Boston, Goffstown, and Dunbarton... I live in Weare, which is actually surrounded by those other towns. We have a terrific school system, average taxes (but no services, no trash, no town sewer or water, volunteer fire dept only). One of the major drawbacks to my area is the distance to shopping. We are 35 minutes to the nearest major grocery store and Walmart. And your husband's commute would be about 35-45 minutes, depending on where in these towns.

Bedford is a terrific town... both of my kids went to preschool there, I have several friends there and I know of a few great churches. Plus they have nice shopping and restaurants and it is close to Manchester (probably 15-20 minutes to airport, depending on where in Bedford and traffic). But house prices are EXTREMELY high and taxes are high. Plus Bedford children attend Manchester highschool. One of the major reasons we chose not to buy a house in Bedford. Another reason we chose not to live in Bedford is the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. It is, for the most part, a weathly town, so even though we were able to afford a home, we didn't want to be constantly feeling like we were the "poor" neighbors for not having a Mercedes or BMW in the driveway and designer clothes on our kids. We chose to have a larger home in a more average community than a smaller home in a wealthy community. Not a choice everyone would make, but it has worked well for us.

Be prepared to be shocked by the property taxes on houses in NH. Not sure what the tax situation is like in NC, but since there is no sales tax and no income tax in NH, it is made up by having higher property taxes. But we still feel like we are ahead of the game compared to our MA neighbors. MA has pretty high taxes for everything! And CT is worse!

Well.... I could go on and on, but I won't. Let me know if you have any specific questions. PM me if you want and we can talk on the phone or email. I'd love to help you out! .........P

 

[pjlla]

I hadn't read all the previous posts before I posted.... glad to see that many people agree with my opinion of the Manchester school system!..............P

 

[cynsaun]

Thanks for all the posts! It is great to have information from people that actually live there and know what's going on!

We do have elementary-aged children and have had MAJOR issues with the schools in the Raleigh, NC, so the schools are important to us. The schools here are county run, and horrible to say the least!

We have heard from several of our friends that live in Bedford that the high school isn't that great, and the way the housing costs keep rising, so we are not sure if this is the town we should move to. We just keep going back to Bedford because of the proximity to the airport.

I have heard that Bow is a town with fantastic schools, as does MontVernon. The thing that scares us about MontVernon is that I have heard (not been to this town yet to see for myself) that it is still such a small town that there are quite a few gravel roads.

We are hoping to fly up next week to start driving around to get a better handle on all the different towns.

 

[cynsaun]

hey pjlla!

Thanks for your post, you were posting as I was posting my last response!

We are sure we want to be up in the Northeast. Although I am a California girl (fer sure!!) I love the snow and winter! My husband is originally from New Jersery, so he is used to the snow.

We have been in North Carolina for four years, and HATE it!!! The schools stink, and it's SO hot for most of the year!

As for the property tax rate in NH, we figured compared to the income tax rate we pay plus the property tax we pay now, we would actually save money up there!

Thank you so much for offering to talk to me! I would love that! You seem very sweet, as does everyone else that replied to my original post!!!

 

[kellyann]

We previously lived in New Hampshire and we loved it. We are currently in the process of relocating from the North Carolina to Massachusetts, and I honestly cannot wait to get back up to New England! New Hampshire is a great place to live and I am sure that whatever town you choose you will not regret your decision! Good Luck!

 

[cynsaun]

Originally posted by kellyann
We previously lived in New Hampshire and we loved it. We are currently in the process of relocating from the North Carolina to Massachusetts, and I honestly cannot wait to get back up to New England! New Hampshire is a great place to live and I am sure that whatever town you choose you will not regret your decision! Good Luck!

How ironic!!! Where in North Carolina are you? What a small world!

 

[kellyann]

Cynsaun,

Yes it is a small world! We were in Raleigh and now we are in Apex. We had a horrible experience here with the school system here, isn't it a mess!

 

[cynsaun]

Amen to that!!! We did all our research before we moved here and thought we were moving to the best school in the area--boy were we wrong! It's amazing how this place is always voted near the top of the "best" place to live!!

 

[Lorix2]

marlasmom & pjlla - We live in Manchester, near the Londonderry line. My kids attend an elementary and jr. high here. What is it that makes you put the school system down? Or Manchester in general?

 

[Dizzy-Disney4]

Well I live in Derry and LOVE it...although the taxes, as everyone has stated, are HORRIBLE. We are very convienent to MHT and the bonus is Pinkerton Academy....private highschool that all Derry children go to (one reason why are taxes are so high I would assume). The only thing I wish....is that we weren;t so close to Massachusetts...lol...nothing personal MA people was born there and lived there for 30 years till I moved here two years ago. If I had my way and could afford it....I would live way up north in NH....love small towns like Littleton.