Anyone live in New Hampshire?

[YadaYadaYada]

CT is really wearing thin on us lately (Got Taxes?) and we are talking about moving out of state. New Hampshire seems like a pretty liberal place to live which is appealing.

Wondering if anyone lives there and if you like it, things we should know. We are in the beginning planning stages, we have always lived in CT so this will be a huge move for us.

 

[rainydaze]

Yes! LOVE it! DH and I grew up in MA, as soon as we were married we moved to NH. Whatcha looking for?

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Yes! LOVE it! DH and I grew up in MA, as soon as we were married we moved to NH. Whatcha looking for?

That's a good question, I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for how NH is overall. I am concerned about the snow, do you get a lot where you are? We are used to having easy access to grocery stores and gas stations etc so living too far in the boonies probably wouldn't work for us. We have two school-age sons so an area with good schools. Even if you can just point us in a general direction of an area to start researching that would be great.

 

[rainydaze]

Ok! You have the same criteria we did. Great school systems (top in state, some even nationally ranked): Bedford, Amherst, Hopkinton, Hollis. Property taxes are shocking if you are coming from states where they are not that; keep in mind there is no income tax and no sales tax which is why it all falls to property taxes and the numbers can look scary. The only other tax is meals tax. It evens out. And of course if you are in one of the towns with a top school system (i.e. even higher property tax) you are still paying less in property taxes than you would be paying in private school tuitions. You get what you pay for. We have relatives and friends who opted for towns with slightly more stomach-able taxes and now that their kids are getting further into the school systems, they are complaining. Some are looking at private school, some are just angry and confused.

Amherst and Hollis have charming rural feels but are close to 101A which has nearly everything (Target, Bed Bath, Whole Foods, Walmart, and a million other things both big and quaintly small) and access to Everett Turnpike/Rt 3 which take you everywhere (Burlington, Boston, and everything before them). Bedford is a huge town/slightly city-ish but on a very small city scale, it's right next to Manchester which is a city. Top school system, all the amenities, more house inventory to choose from and thus a little bit wider price range. IN any of these areas you can find/access town farms, locally grown foods, and CFAs if that's your bag. But you've also got all the big groceries, Pea Pod and Whole Foods deliver and there is a Hannaford To-Go.

Hopkinton is further north in the state and I'm not sure about the snow there, but the other towns are closer to the MA border. We get snow, sometimes a lot, sometimes meh. Depends upon the winter. One winter we had storm after storm and maintained at least 2-3 feet of snow the entire winter. Lots of snow days, lots of digging out. Power outages are bit more common here from wind and ice storms, so whole-house automatic generators are a big plus. It seems to snow later in the season now (starts more towards the end of Dec-Jan and lasts until March, sometimes even getting a little snow in April). I grew up in relatively the same area though, so I am not sure how best to qualify or compare it for you.

Be careful of Merrimack. Largest town (population-wise, 25k?) in NH, has a lot of amenities and something for everyone (house-wise) but they had an Erin Brokovitch situation with a company dumping PFOA and it became airborne, causing an outbreak of cancer. It's been addressed but something to be aware of.

 

[rainydaze]

Peterborough area - lovely town, quaint with an artist community and the feel that goes with that. Some amenities but rather sparse. Most things you want are 45-60 minutes away. There is a snow belt here (and Jeffrey) and they get snow when no one else does. Town doesn't plow all roads, even some paved ones. I'm not sure this would be an area for you. Schools are not great, and private school options are limited and most are expensive.

Wilton - very rural but a little closer to things. Has the Waldorf schools if that is of interest to you.

Exeter - forgot about this. Closer to the coast, also known for a good school system and having a more progressive feel. This part of the state is more congested as more people from MA have moved to this area for easy access to Boston and such, but you get amenities everywhere.

Londonderry is also in this area and offers a lot of affordable options, though check the school system as it's not tops but I think it's still pretty decent.

Even in the tiny boonies town of Jaffrey, residents turned out to protest an anti-gay group from Kansas that was blowing through to spout their 'message'. NH are good people, imo.

 

[OreoRosies86]

All I can say is, avoid Manchester unless you’re going to be right in the downtown.

 

[Tekate]

I'm south of Portland in Maine, taxes are reasonable but the locals don't think so (being from Texas the taxes seemed cheaper, but really aren't). We are going to be moving in the next year tho. (not because of taxes, grand-daughter! )

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Wow, thanks so much for all that info @rainydaze, that give us a great start to research different areas. Silly as it is being from CT but I am concerned about the snow potential, I would rather go somewhere warm tbh.

@Elliot86 and @Tekate, thanks so much for your input, this is a huge potential move for us so every bit is helpful.

To give you an idea of taxes, our house is a 1200 square foot ranch on slab in central CT and the taxes for us are just under $3700 and that includes a special fire district tax that we pay. Of course CT has the reputation of taxing everything under the son, they are currently floating a payroll tax and the current governor is working on bringing tolls back to all the major highways. Those items in and of themselves are not alarming but when you put it all together it's just too much. I ask DH all the time "why do we live here" and he doesn't have an answer

 

[rainydaze]

So happy to help! Feel free to shoot me questions if things come up as you start digging and I'll do my best to answer. We have lived here almost 20 years, I tend to follow real estate for fun (getting to know towns as well as housing markets), and we have looked into a bunch of schools, including a few public.

 

[soxfan]

I moved to Mass from NH- better schools, more opportunity, and we were sick and tired of footing the bill for the schools through our property taxes. I pay less taxes here than I did in NH!

My parents have a house on the lake in NH, and we use it in the winter for skiing, and I would go up in summer but we have a pool here so it's hard to leave.

I live on 1.5 acres in a rural residential community and I'm 5 minutes from ALL the grocery stores, target, TJ Maxx, restaurants, you name it. My husband works in RI and has a 30 minute commute. I could NOT be happier with where I live!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

@soxfan maybe I'll just move in with you! Between what you described and your cake thread it looks good to me!

 

[soxfan]

@soxfan maybe I'll just move in with you! Between what you described and your cake thread it looks good to me!

I have chickens too. Just sayin'..

I think a happy medium would be Mass. WAY less taxes than CT, but more amenities. NH can really be "in the sticks." I used to have to drive 30 minutes for groceries and an hour for decent clothes. And OUR school system was terrible. Some are ok, but Mass is #1 in education. Oh, and if you don't like snow, you will like Mass MUCH better than NH.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

I really didn't think MA was much different than CT, maybe that's totally ignorant but there you go. Granted we have been to MA but mainly for specific places like Magic Wings.

Can I just say you would think we would be #1 for education, every time we turn around it's "we need to raise taxes for education" now it's "we need tolls to fix our roads and bridges". Makes you wonder where it all goes, clearly not where it's supposed to be!

 

[soxfan]

CT mismanages their money. I hate going there for ski races. To me, it just has no "character," for lack of a better word. It's like it wants to be Mass and it wants to be NY but can't make either work?

My friend lives there and struggles but she is a snob and is into big names and loves to say she lives in a certain town even though they will never be able to renovate their money pit they bought just to be able to keep up with the Joneses. It's sad

I at least feel like I get my money's worth here. I didn't feel that way in NH. And the schools were terrible. If I didn't have kids and I was independently wealthy, I WOULD be living in NH, but while I have kids in school, no way.

 

[soxfan]

Yeah, you haven't really been to a lot of places in Mass. I live 45 mins from Boston and an hour and a half to the Cape. I also live an hour from Newport, RI. It's in the middle of everything!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Yes many places in CT it's very Stepford let's just say.

Well we will have to look into MA too then which would be great, no far from the family so easy to get back for holidays.

Do you have some towns you recommend looking into @soxfan?

 

[soxfan]

Yes! Mendon, Upton, Hopedale, and Bellingham

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Awesome thank you so much!

 

[Runningmama]

We moved from Boston to the seacoast of NH (route 95 just over the MA border) and couldn’t be happier. We got our dream house under budget with a 9.5/10 school system and are minutes from the beach, farms, and lots of family fun. We would have paid around $700k for it on the north shore. I commuted to Boston for about 7 months but it was 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour and 15 minutes at night so I ended up finding a position closer to home. It was a massive paycut (over $50k/year less) so just keep that in mind if you are working. NH is definitely NOT a liberal population, however.