Possible move to the Seabrook area... (Dover, Portsmouth: low crime, houses, school districts)

[Shellys3angels]

My husband has a great opportunity at landing a job in Seabrook. Can someone give me some information on the towns around Seabrook. We are looking for low crime, family community, affordable housing, excellent school districts and a nice walkable downtown would be a plus. We have visited Portsmouth, NH several times on summer vacations and absolutely love that area. Do you get a lot of snow in the winter?

[Annabelle]

Look into Exeter! Excellent schools, great downtown, low crime, definitely a "family" community and lots of houses on the market at much lower prices than just a year or so ago.

[Valerie C]

Seabrook itself probably won't have what you're looking for. Instead of downtown, it offers every conceivable big box store along Route 1. Head out to some of the surrounding towns. Exeter & Stratham come to mind first, then Dover and North Hampton. Some more rural towns would be Brentwood, East Kingston, Kensington. It really depends on what would work best for your family. If I can provide info to help to familiarize you with the area, just let me know-I'm happy to do whatever I can if this ends up happening for your family.

[Shellys3angels]

Annabelle & Valerie, thanks for all of your feedback. Exeter sounds really nice. I am not sure if my family and I have ever visited that area. I will keep you posted about the outcome of the job. New Hampshire is absolutely beautiful!

[GregW]

The Seabrook area is one of the nicest parts of the state. Rolling small hills, lots of green, the ocean right there. I would look at the towns and small cities just inland from the coastal towns. Portsmouth is a really neat small city but I do not have any idea how expensive it could be.

I suggest you get a map of NH and check out the towns on this website. I have found the information to be quite useful.

[unknown stuntman]

Seabrook is the very last town you want to reside in amongst the Seacoast communities, unless inexpensive housing is your overwhelming criteria. As long as we have nuclear power, affordable housing will still exist in this country!
If you are affluent, Rye and Newcastle are far and away the best communities and your only a few minutes from Portsmouth. Take note that your kids will be part of the Portsmouth school district in the latter years and PHS has really taken a nosedive in recent years.
Hampton Falls doesn't seem to get alot of pub on this board and it adjoins Seabrook to the north. A beautiful community and quite discernable from Seabrook despite the proximity.

[OCCASparky]

Define "affordable". Is your husband considering working at the plant? If so, PM me.

[CityGirl52]

I live on the seacoast not too far from Seabrook at all. If I were you? I'd definitely head to either one of these towns, Hampton Falls, Hampton, No. Hampton, Exeter, Stratham, Newfields or Kingston. Any one of those towns are great as far as we can see and from what we're actually witnessing from living here! My hairdresser that I used to have lived in Seabrook for the longest time and then she moved to Hampton Falls via having a house built there and when their kids were past that toddler stage they strictly did this for the school system in Hampton Falls. Some people wouldn't say this I bet, but I'll tell you what the bottom line was any way where I don't have any kids and heard this same story over and over AND over again from many many people! Hampton Falls as well as any of the other towns mentioned is definitely a notch or two up from Seabrook due to the caliber of families they have there and through meeting and knowing them all through the schools with their kids? It worked out all around for this particular couple this way and YES, they were absolutely correct with that observation. It depends on WHERE in Seabrook though, don't confuse the beach with the town. That's another topic all together. The beach district in Seabrook has homes that are worth mega's and quite a lot of them are absolutely stunning. There's just a big difference from that part of the town to the village area itself. There's of course an improvement since my nieces and nephews were young, because there's a ton of newer developments all in through the town now than ever before. There taxes were always less than the rest of the seacoast due to the nuclear plant and all there businesses along Rte 1. So that way you might still want to consider the town, that of course is up to you in the end....

[maxxoccupancy]

The only reason that test scores are lower in Seabrook is that the town (with funds from the plant) has been accepting special ed kids from neighboring towns. Because special ed and remedial student scores get thrown in with the rest, Seabrook's score suffer. I have talked with many students and adults who've attended schools here, and none strike me as more poorly educated than any of the neighbors. I believe that this is just another case of liberals promoting a stereotype to keep you out of lower taxed areas. There are very nice areas along Folly Mill Road and by the Library. The police and fire stations are there, and the houses are all very nice. This is the heart of the town, and stores are available within walking distance. The roads by the library also provide a nice detour from Route 1. You don't save time, but you avoid the noise and the lights. It's really a nice drive. Route 1A out at Seabrook Beach is a beautiful drive, also.

[DreamworksSKG]

you might check out York ME
would be about 5-7 miles from Portsmouth area

Nice coastal community

-jeff-
Winchester, MA