New Hampshire Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Best Places to Live in NH?
Hi all!
My husband and I are thinking about a move to New Hampshire in the next year. My parents are buying a place in northern New Hampshire, and while we'd like to be near them, we're thinking more towards the southern part of the state.
We're looking for an area with good jobs, schools, etc. We love the outdoors: biking, hiking, running, etc. I would love to be in or near a college town. However, I'm trying to avoid sticker shock for my husband.
What are your favorite towns in New Hampshire? We're planning a trip out in the spring to check out areas. If you like a particular town, what is the best part of town/school district? What makes it a great place to live?
Thanks for your help!
Amie in Indianapolis
Re: Best Places to Live in NH?
As far as jobs go, your best best is Southern NH.. Unfortunately this is also the most expensive part of the state. Some towns I like (not only for the town but the schools) are Amherst, Milford, Windham, Bedford, Hollis and Brookline. Those towns are all very pricey though. I live in Goffstown and like the town and schools, and I teach in Weare, which also has good schools, and is very affordable. There is a ton of new construction in this area and many people moving in are younger families.
The lakes region is really nice, but I don't know what kind of industry you and your husband are in.
Check out www.nneren.com for real estate listings, and www.greatschools.net is a good source for checking out school ratings usually done by parents. You can search for schools by town.
I went to high school in Indianapolis. Look at Dover, its right next to where UNH is located but not nearly as spendy as Durham itself. Unless you head farther north, there is going to be a higher cost of living here versus IN...
its the secoast area so great access to the beach and mountains....you couldn't pay me enough to move back to Indianapolis, lol. The "central southern" part of this state is more populated, but I am really partial to the seacoast area. You're still commutable to Manchester, Boston, and Portland here which all have good job opporunities.
i'm a dover girl and i love it here! i'm close to hiking, skiing, bike paths, the beach, lakes, a college (UNH - just 15 minutes away), great shopping (the outlets in kittery maine for big shopping and the whole downtown portsmouth area for smaller local shops) and a nice small town feel with the bigger amenities and community resources of a city.
dover has 30k-ish residents (i could be a bit off on that number but that's ballpark at least!) and is one of 6 cities in NH. it really feels like a small town though. there is a section of the downtown area that is in the planning stages of a huge renovation and development project in the next few years. it should really drive up property values in our neighborhood after it's completed and we're pretty happy about that!
if you have money to spend, i'd recommend portsmouth as well - a GORGEOUS town (idyllic, really - it regularly lands on the "top places to live" lists for the entire country), but you pay for the location for sure. when we were looking a year ago, typical 3/4 bed 2 bath homes were in the 250-300k range in dover and were probably more like 300-400k in portsmouth. they may be a bit lower now with the market tanking. dover and portsmouth are right next to eachother and are both in the seacoast area of NH. the entire seacoast region is an awesome place to live - others have mentioned close-by towns like madbury, barrington, lee, newington, durham, stratham, north hampton, exeter (beautiful too!) and such. all would be great places to move. (just don't move to rochester or seabrook... haha!) if you're looking to buy, i can recomment a GREAT local realtor who has quite a dedicated following on here
don't move north. the southern/seacoast area is definitely worlds better!
I'm partial to the Bedford/Manchester (and surrounding area) because it's where I grew up and my folks still live in Bedford. Manchester (and Nashua 25/30 mins south on MA border) are the biggest cities in the state and Manch is about an hr commute to Boston (there's also a bus if commuting is a possibility). But I also went to UNH and love the seacoast area people have mentioned above - of which there is very little of it in our great state.
Since you mentioned college towns I will also suggest the Plymouth area (Plymouth State, north of Concord) and Hanover/Littleton (Dartmouth College, VT border). You'll find those to be a bit more rural than the southern, more populated part of the state. GL!
Most of NH is pretty nice. . .there's not really a "best" place to live. I would not mind living in most of the regions (just not too far north). Besides what other people metioned you could check out the Keene area too.
This is a good website for learning about the regions/towns:
http://www.visitnh.gov/
I live in Wolfeboro, which is part of the Lakes region. Some classify us as being northern NH, but what part are your parents moving to?
Each area of Nh has it's pros and cons just like every place else. We live in Wolfeboro mainly because of our jobs. We love the small town aspect, and great community feel. But that is also a con, everyone knows everyone thus everyone is into everyones business!
Do you have kids? We have a great school system and special education network. We are 30-45 minutes from North Conway and those outlets, we're 30-40 minutes from Tilton and those outlets and shopping, and we are 30-45 minutes from the seacoast and all that has to offer.
What area of work would you be looking at? That would impact which part of the state you should look at to live. Best of luck with your decision! Let us know if you have any questions!
I also live in the lakes region and we are in a small town. We are 20 minutes from Concord, 25 minutes from Dover, 40 minutes from Portsmouth. Our taxes are super low which is the main reason we bought here. Much of town has a lot of summer homes on the lakes, we live about a two minute walk from a beautiful pond. We can snowmobile right from our door onto the main state trails. My husband also works at a local ski resort which is short drive from our house.
Congrats on the move. I think you will love it here!
I moved here about 4 months ago (after 12 years) & am really enjoying it. The Big Apple seems like a distant memory . . .
Like many people have mentioned, we love the seacoast (especially Portsmouth & New Castle). But they are pricey.
Right now, we live in Concord & I think it is a great, livable (much more affortable) town than the ones on the coast or the in the south. It is just big enough to have anything we need (enough restaurants, a center for the arts, close ski & bike paths, good hospital, etc), close enough to Boston when we are itching for a city, & still small enough that I am always seeing someone I know in the grocery store (a big change from NYC!).
Concord's kind of in the middle. It is only about 20 minutes to Manchester & the airport. But it is far enough north to be the last "major" NH city before the mountains. And it is easy to get anywhere from here. Both Interstates 89 and 93 run right through it.
I grew up spending summers in the Lakes Region (which is about a 50 minute drive)--so we can head up there to meet my parents for dinner when they are in town. And I also work up in Plymouth (another cute college town that is REALLY close to skiing, hiking, etc) which is a 50 minute drive, but it is the easiest commute--straight up 93. So workwise, I think Concord is fairly central to be able to work in a lot of places/industries.
Good luck with the move!
Thank you for all of your comments. This should help with planning our 'look-and-see' trip.
To answer a few questions:
1. We do not have children yet but are planning a family in the near future. So, good schools are a priority.
2. My husband is a Software Engineer, and that's why we were thinking southern NH. My understanding is that jobs are easier to come by there. Of course, the company he is with now is based in NYC, so we are flexible with where we can move. The only concern is if he ever needs to find another job.
3. My parents are moving to is Stark, NH. Seems like a quaint town, and only 2 hours form Montreal!
We are both more interested in a rural area. We are not big city people and are eager to leave the urban sprawl. However, we're asking a lot. That's why we're planning the trip just to check out the area.
$200k-$300k actually doesn't sound too bad to me. My husband won't be thrilled, but I don't imagine we could find a 3 bed house under 200k in our area. (Our market remained relatively flat as compared with most other markets in the country during the housing bubble.)
Thanks again for all of your help!
I'm orginally from MA but lived in Keene, NH for 2 years. It definitely has a small town feel to it, pretty much everyone knows everyone but I did like the fact that everything I needed was a 5-10min. drive. We had 3 major grocery stores, Target, Walmart, TJ Maxx, Micheals etc. lot's of chain restaurants and small private restaurants. The downtown area is very cute and it's also a college town. I did feel far away from everything. Keene is surrounded by a bunch of towns with really nothing there. I moved from Boston to Keene and I felt so safe in Keene compared to Boston.
We now live on the Seacoast, which I LOVE but it's a lot more expensive than the Keene area. I do feel that I have to drive more to get anywhere but I think that's because of the town we live in. I love being an hour from Boston and 20 mins. to the beach. Portsmouth is my favorite city, great restaurants, cute shops and great people. We are much happier in the Seacoast but part of me misses Keene just a little!
Good Luck : )
Hi Amie,
I am an agent in the Bedford area, and grew up in Manchester/Bedford so know the areas very well. As far as school districts go (and for resale purposes), I would suggest Londonderry, Derry, Hampstead, Exeter, Brentwood, Lee, Bedford, Hollis, or Brookline. Obviously those also tend to be the more expensive towns as well, although there are loads of great deals on the market at the moment, and I am sure will continue to be over the next year. In this area we are seeing a lot of bank-owned properties (where the previous owner was foreclosed on, and the house is now in the bank's possession and they are responsible for selling), as well as short-sale properties (where the owner owes more on his/her mortgage than the current market value, and the bank works with them to allow them to sell at a lower price than what they owe). Both situations typically allow you as the buyer to come in and possibly get a really great deal on a home. Normally with these, the homes might need a little (or a lot) of TLC, so to speak. However, I have been seeing more and more on the market that don't really need that much at all.
Back to neighborhoods and towns, I think Londonderry/Hampstead/Derry is a great area, as you are close to everything. Taxes in Derry are very high, so I would steer towards possibly one of the smaller surrounding towns. Brentwood/Exeter is a great area as well.
When you decide to visit, I would suggest getting in touch with an agent in the areas that you are interested in, and having him/her take a couple of days and show you around the area so you can get a first-hand feel for the communities and culture.
Good luck!
Lauren