Amherst/Hollis vs Seacoast - Where to Live? (Manchester, Nashua: appointed, rentals)

[NH2008]

Hi there,

I just got back from six weeks visiting family in northern NH on a pre-relocation trip and found this site...hope some of you can give me some insight to help us make a decision.

I love the Lakes and White Mountain regions (where my family lives) but my husband will need to be within easy driving distance of the Boston Airport for work, so we're looking at moving to southern NH. We visited the Seacoast as well as the towns around Nashua and Manchester with realtors. I really fell in love with the hustle and bustle of Portsmouth and think if we moved there we'd probably live in New Castle (a fantasy - probably beyond our budget), Exeter or Stratham. My husband really fell in love with Hollis and Amherst, since he thought small town life would be ideal for our kids (4 and 1) and the schools are rated so highly. So here are my questions...

- How do housing prices in Amherst and Hollis compare with prices in the Seacoast towns I mentioned?

- If you've lived in Amherst or Hollis, what can you tell me about life there? What are the communities like? Aside from outdoors activities, what do residents do for fun? Do you drive into Nashua or Boston to shop, eat out, etc? I love hiking, skiing etc but go stir-crazy without places to take the kids...

- If you have kids in the Exeter school district, what do you love about it? I have heard many people say they think it's excellent, but the matriculation report (% of students going on to 4 year colleges) was lower than I expected. I have a hard time understanding the statistics online, but I'm sure I'm missing something...

- If you picked one area over the other, why? If you picked Amherst over Hollis or vice versa, why?

Thanks!

[WannaComeHome]

Originally Posted by NH2008

- How do housing prices in Amherst and Hollis compare with prices in the Seacoast towns I mentioned?

- If you've lived in Amherst or Hollis, what can you tell me about life there? What are the communities like? Aside from outdoors activities, what do residents do for fun? Do you drive into Nashua or Boston to shop, eat out, etc? I love hiking, skiing etc but go stir-crazy without places to take the kids...

- If you have kids in the Exeter school district, what do you love about it? I have heard many people say they think it's excellent, but the matriculation report (% of students going on to 4 year colleges) was lower than I expected. I have a hard time understanding the statistics online, but I'm sure I'm missing something...

- If you picked one area over the other, why? If you picked Amherst over Hollis or vice versa, why?

Housing is expensive in Hollis, but I believe Amherst is higher (at least it always has been). schools in Hollis are great: they get anythign budget-wise that they ask for (which is why taxes are high in Hollis). I'm not sure how the housing compares to seacoast, Valerie would know better.

As to what you do... well, Hollis is a "bedroom town" as are most towns in NH. There really isn't much to do there other than live. You go elsewhere mostly. Shopping is usually Nashua, so are movies and restaraunts (although my folks tend to go more to Merrimack for restaraunts). They usually have a strawberry festival and an apple festival on the Common, lately they've been having an Old Home Day - but I heard it didn't happen this year. My mother plays bridge a lot, she goes to Extension Club meetings... the people are nice, apparently there's now a big horse farm on Wheeler Rd that probably teaches riding, there's ponds for swimming, Beaver Brook has a great network of trails for hiking or cross-country skiing... it's NH. what can I say. I don't think there are any 'bad' sections anywhere in town.

[WinterWonder]

We too, are looking to relocate to this area. I had a posting earlier in the week called "New England Relocation" and hardly anyone responded to me - not sure why.

I am very interested to hear what NH people have to say, so I hope people respond to your post, as I've had virtually no luck with mine. We are from Northern NJ, and like you, I would also go stir-crazy in a place that has minimal activites for the kids, or as I'd say "too quiet". I am expecting with my 2nd child, and so schools are also a big factor for us. Coming from Northern NJ, we are preparing ourselves for a quieter place, however I can't deny that we need SOME bustle, some livelihood....

I have vistited both Hollis and Amherst. Both are very beautiful towns, with a historic village and downtown that just suits us. Amherst was very quiet - gorgeous, but very quiet. We visited it twice, and both times there were only a few people walking around.

Hollis is right next to Nashua, and I was excited about that. However I was a little disappointed with Nashua. We scheduled one evening to attend a festival for a 200th anniversary of something, and hardly anyone was there! The stadium was about 1/8th full of people. It was a little disconcerting to us. But everyone was very friendly of course. We liked Concord a lot better.

Seacost towns definitely had more bustle - Portsmouth, Rochester, Dover. We'd definitely consider these. Can anyone that lives in these towns tell me about the snow? I would assume it's alot less than inland because of the coastal effect, but my family and I, unlike most people, love snow. So I can get a sense, what are the chances of a white Christmas? (rarely get that in NJ!)

[DareToDream]

I don't know what the "norm" is, but we are in northern New Hampshire - we didn't have a white Christmas last year, but we did have a white Easter!

[NH2008]

Thanks, everyone. We also visited Amherst and Hollis and I thought they were just beautiful - definitely not the bustle of the Seacoast, but really charming. I agree that Nashua doesn't have the city feel of Portsmouth, but ironically I have to say we've had better meals there, even though Portsmouth is supposed to be the culinary center of New England. There seemed to be more ethnic diversity, at least in restaurants, which I love, and I've read that a Whole Foods is coming, as is a commuter train to Boston. So I think it's grown in the modern way - sprawl instead of a major downtown, which means less bustle even if there's just as much to do. Anyway, compared to my parents' town of 1000 people Amherst didn't seem overly quiet to me - and you're only an hour from Boston. But in terms of relocation, I think it's hard to find a house on 1-2 acres and bustle - perhaps Stratham, which is near Portsmouth, or Bow, outside Concord? Wolfeboro is cute too.

I know the schools in both places are fabulous, and we do love outdoors activities. However when we were visiting my parents and it was 100 and drizzling (ugh) I felt really cooped up. So I'm wondering what families do on those days - is there enough to keep people busy in Nashua? We really do love town life, but my husband travels a ton for work and sometimes it's nice to take the kids out to dinner or just out, period when it's been just the three of us all day...

Thanks!

[WannaComeHome]

well, you've got to remember that many towns are still simply bedroom-towns. They don't have much of anything other than a place to live, go to school (maybe) and sometimes a small convenience store. You're expected to go elsewhere for stuff.

Hollis is a bit spread out, it's not a walking town. There just isn't really any place much to walk to! My mom and my sister walk their dogs around, but they aren't in the center of town.

It sounds like you want a bit more 'city' - have you looked at Salem?

Snow has been a bit less lately - and a bit later. If you really really need a white christmas, you'll have to go much farther north - and even then I don't think they got one last year. Doesn't mean the climate won't change in a few years, but Seacoast is a different weather pattern than northern - the weather tends to go through on an angle, so south of Concord and east of New Ipswich - Brookline has a milder winter than Keene and all the points north. If you check the city-data page for the towns you're looking at, they have graphs for the weather and you can see how it tends by month (not sure how current the data they've got is though).

[Valerie C]

The areas that get the jackpot amounts of snow are typically northern NH (lakes region and above) and the western side of the state (Keene gets mentioned quite often...) The southern/eastern parts of the state these past several years don't seem to get walloped the way we did when we were kids. The heaviest snow month is (or seems to be...) February.

Many of the towns mentioned (Amherst, Hollis, etc) are spread out with very little town center. Merrimack has of course Rte. 3 running along the river, lots of businesses there. The exception to that is Milford, with "the loop" of businesses.

I do have a special affinity for the seacoast areas, Portsmouth, North Hampton, Exeter. Even on days when there is nothing to do, the beach is just a short drive. We are 4-season beach goers (nothing like walking the beach just before/during/after a winter storm. In the off season, you're allowed to bring your dog as well. If you're into horses, Salisbury Reservation is a great place to park and ride the beach.

I held of on replying to your message NH2008, because you specifically asked for recommendations from people who live in these various towns, and I don't. I live in Londonderry, which you may want to consider. Our schools are excellent (95% of the reason we chose this town). We are super convenient to Routes 93 and 101. Everything we would want to do is an hour away (except for Cape Cod, but we head to Maine's beaches in summer anyway)

If you have any questions, I'm usually around on the forum a couple of times a day. Feel free to send a message

[NH2008]

Thanks! We are actually pretty sick of city life at this point and are very okay with a quiet bedroom community, I'm just trying to find out what there is to do "elsewhere" - assuming that's Nashua or Manchester? And what the community is like. I've heard there is some resentment of people moving in from out of state, do you think that would be an issue?

[Valerie C]

I think that the resentment, especially in the smaller, quiet towns, comes in, NH2008, when folks are baked, fried and done with city life, and move to NH to "get back to basics". After some time goes by (sometimes just a couple months down the road, other times it's not until a year or two later, when the family changes/grows and people want more from their town, be it town trash pick-up (instead of the dump) or special ed. services, huge libraries with the latest DVD rentals available. As more and more people move into the area, they change the town from the "quaint Norman Rockwell" town they were seeking, into the city-life they left behind.

I'll give you a "for instance". I live in Londonderry. We have GREAT schools (Welcome to the Londonderry School District), high taxes, tons of athletic fields, and a small playground at each of our 3 elementary schools. What we do not have is a park, like this: Field of Dreams Home Page, or this: Alexander, or this: Greeley Park, or this: Merrifield Park.

The last few years, there is a growing group that wants a park. Letters are sent to our local (free) paper asking why a town with Londonderry's character doesn't have a park. This is where "I" have a problem. Everyone who moves to Londonderry should research to see if it has what they want. Want a park? Chose a community that has one. Don't move here, then decide that the town "needs" something else. Would I have used a park had there been one when I chose this town? Doubtless I would! However, there are nice parks in nearby Derry, Salem and Hudson. I used those parks

I prefer to suggest to people to try a 1-year lease in the town that they think they want to live in. It's a whole lot easier to break a lease then to sell a house... Sometimes they discover that their chosen town really IS perfect for them, other's are seeking me out just a few months down the road thanking me for not letting them make "the biggest mistake of their life" OR calling me a year later to put their house on the market when as it turns out, they hate this, that, and the other thing about their house, neighborhood, or town.

[NH2008]

Valerie - Thanks, we have actually thought of doing that (renting) but after 8 different rentals in three states in 8 years of marriage, we're ready to put down roots. We're just done! That's why I'm trying so hard to find the right place, since once we get our oldest in kindergarten we'll have made a real commitment to staying. The last thing we would want to do is move again right away or make pains of ourselves trying to change everything. I view it like marriage - I would never take the leap assuming anything was going to change!

I have heard wonderful things about Londonderry and it seems residents absolutely love it, but we're specifically looking for an old town with a downtown and my impression (which could be wrong since I've never been there is that Londonderry is more modern/suburban?