Small farm living in NH? (Concord, Merrimack: for sale, real estate, condos)

[berry987]

We are looking to relocate to NH and buy a small farm (just for chickens, goats, etc, maybe 8-12 acres), but we would like to be near a nice town with something going on. Preferably with good schools. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[sambo42xa]

Can you please define "nice town" so I can move there too once we've found it.

[GregW]

Try Chester or Auburn. There appear to be many houses with a 10 - 20 acre back yard. There is a parcel on Rt 102 just east of Chester town center that is 27 acres and a house for sale. There may be many others. I would suggest looking on the State of New Hampshire website under Dept of Agriculture and seeing if there are any links to farm real estate.

Londonderry just lost a couple of riding schools/ horse farms to the developers. We already have enough subdivisions and houses in town. We need more industry not houses. Valerie C may be able to help

[Valerie C]

Hi Berry
Not sure which part of the state you're thinking about, there are so many towns where this might fit, maybe if you narrow it down a bit...

Keeping in mind that NH doesn't have an income tax or a sales tax, property taxes are understandably higher than our neighbors to the south (MA). And the better the schools, the higher the taxes, just a sad fact of life.

The north and western parts of the state are somewhat more rural than the seacoast and southern NH. I can't comment on school in those areas, but in my general vicinity (Concord and points south, and out to the seacoast) these are some of the towns that can offer acreage and also good schools (in no particular order): Amherst, Hollis, Exeter, Stratham, South Hampton, East Kingston, Nottingham, Madbury, Lee, Deerfield, Auburn, Chester, Hampstead.

If you're considering Mass. as well, some suggestions close to the NH border might be: Amesbury, Merrimack, Georgetown, Groveland. The prices rise steeply once you cross the border, as you might expect.

[Valerie C]

Hey Greg, you posted between the time I started typing and the time I hit send, with a couple of calls in between I'm pretty sad about Londonderry losing the horse properties, especially Twin Gate. My son took therapeutic riding in Newton NH for a couple years, and when he stopped, we went to Twin Gate to get his horse fix. Hard to believe that there's going to be condos there I'm with you--no more houses, there are plenty already! Hard tho, when we have a developer agent on the town council!!

Originally Posted by GregW

Londonderry just lost a couple of riding schools/ horse farms to the developers. We already have enough subdivisions and houses in town. We need more industry not houses. Valerie C may be able to help

[jthibodeau]

Originally Posted by berry987

We are looking to relocate to NH and buy a small farm (just for chickens, goats, etc, maybe 8-12 acres), but we would like to be near a nice town with something going on. Preferably with good schools. Does anyone have any suggestions?

You may want to consider purchasing a home with property in the 12 to 15 acre range. Your property taxes can be reduced by separating (on paper) the home, driveway, garage etc. from the balance of the (farm) property. With this separation, the balance of the property can be placed under the current use exemption , thus lowering the tax rate on that area. The home area will be taxed at the normal rate. Normally, the residence or home area will require 2 or more acres. Just remember that the area that you wish to be placed in the current use tax rate must be over ten acres in size.

On the other hand, you just may get lucky enough to find a property that has these requirements already in place. It's not such an unusual practice in country settings. Good Home Hunting...

[Valerie C]

Current Use is a great tax savings, for as long as the land remains in Current Use status. And remember that NO BUILDING OF ANY KIND can be on the portion of land that is in Current Use. And removing land from Current Use gets tricky, and will result in penalty costs. This from the state:

If a property no longer meets the requirements of the Current Use Program, the Town shall assess a penalty (Land Use Change Tax) in accordance with RSA 79-A:7. The penalty shall be 10% of the Fair Market Value, at the time of change, as determined by the Assessor, at highest and best use. (Also see Cub 308.01) This change in assessment will occur on April 1st of the following tax year, however, the penalty will be assessed at the time of change.

In order to determine the Fair Market Value (FMV) at time of change, the Assessor will review land sales for the Town, and make a determination based on those sales. Factors can include size of lot and what land will be used for as well as other considerations.

Once a FMV assessment has been determined, a Current Use Release Form (Form A-5) will be generated by the Assessing Office and given to the Board of Selectmen for approval of values and penalty amount. Upon approval by the Board of Selectmen of these amounts, a bill will be sent to the Property Owner of Record, and a contingent lien is placed on the property. The property owner will have 30 days in which to pay the penalty. If the amount is not paid in that time, interest will begin to accrue on the 31st day. The contingent lien remains on the property until the penalty is paid.

[ConwayNative]

Look up Conway

We just built a new high school.

Are you looking to build at all?

BTW, I've done a lot of research on NH towns, and would be glad to help you out.

[takagi1901]

Originally Posted by ConwayNative

Look up Conway

We just built a new high school.

Are you looking to build at all?

BTW, I've done a lot of research on NH towns, and would be glad to help you out.

We are looking for the same, limited road frontage is OK, as we ARE NOT interested in subdividing the land. What about zoning in NH, can you use the land for small scale agriculture? ( Bees, haying, gardening, some sheep,poultry)

[CometVoyager]

Originally Posted by GregW

Londonderry just lost a couple of riding schools/ horse farms to the developers. We already have enough subdivisions and houses in town. We need more industry not houses. Valerie C may be able to help

I agree GregW! Too many of these California subdivisions will ruin the small town and wonderful country like quality that has been New Hampshire's bench mark for 100's of years.