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Thank you for the very informative replies. Very helpful.
riddei, Great information on Hollis. It sounds like somewhere the kids could really enjoy growing up with all that acreage. If you have any pictures of Hollis, I would gladly view them. I can only imagine the view outside your window with that much land. A few people mentioned high property taxes, if you don't mind could you give me an idea on property taxes in Hollis? Put it this way, we already pay $10,000 a year total for our quarter acre our house sits on and also the tiny piece of land our condo sits on that we rent out, both in Suffolk County, LI. I am glad you are impressed with the school so far. Does the Hollis school district have school buses? What about a full day kindergarten program? What about garbage disposal?
Valerie C, Thank you also for the valuable information. I would take the better schools over the walkable town for sure, especially is such towns would be in driving distance. My children are still little, with one of them about to start kindergarten so in terms of what is important to us in terms of music or sports etc, its hard to say at this point. To me a good school district performs well in test scores but more than that, a good support system is provided for children and parents, a community feel is fostered, the turnover of teachers is low, the whole child is taught and they are not taught only to be good test-takers. I see you are a real estate agent. Can you give me an idea of property taxes for a larger home with 4/5 bedrooms on around 2-3 acres of land in Hollis as compared with Amherst and Bedford for example. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. Like I said, We hope to visit the area later in the year and getting down to two or three towns to visit would be really helpful.
What we are really looking for is a good community feel...we are looking for more space/land/fresh air but we do not want to isolate ourselves. The walkable town thing is not so much wanting to literally walk around a town every weekend but yearning for a place where the community comes together. Somewhere that perhaps holds annual community fairs/parades on holidays. The true All-American kind of experience. If that exists!
I always have a hard time with this "walkable downtown" thing. Sure, I suppose it's nice to have, but can count on one hand the number of times I've actually walked downtown this year (not counting jury duty). Restaurants tend to be over crowded and over priced, and I can only use so much esoteric clothing and home decor (again overpriced). Also brings out some sketchy characters. It's not Disney.
It's easy to find out real estate taxes. Just look up real estate listings. If its not posted there, it's easy to find on the town's website. Look under the assessor section.
In my opinion, New Hampshire would be serious culture shock coming from Long Island. Rather than deal with the whole "Live Free or Die" attitude of New Hampshire and the coming free-stater political battles, consider Massachusetts, just south of the NH border. There are good schools, you'd be closer to the Boston airport, and the traffic, taxes and laws aren't any worse than on Long Island. And you can still drive up to NH for fresh air and tax-free shopping.
I think pretty much every town in NH ranks near the bottom on the walkability index, and in general you'll pay higher property taxes in NH than you would for an equivalent home and land just across the border in MA. With few exceptions, towns in NH don't provide much in the way of services, for example, you either haul your own trash or pay a private company for pickup service. All this adds up quickly.
I do the majority of my business travel out of Manchester (MHT), but some destinations are just easier to get to out of Boston-Logan. A town like Westford, MA puts you within 40 minutes of these two major airports, but still has more of a "town" feel than suburban sprawl closer into Boston proper.
Nonesuch, you are overlooking that home values are way higher in that area of MA. The tax rate may be lower, but homes are more valuable. My house in Nashua would be worth almost double in Westford. I still recommend MA for other reasons you stated.
Hanover has everything you are looking for except proximity to Boston Logan. However cape air flies a commuter route from Lebanon to Boston and New York multiple times a day and its a 10 minute drive from Hanover to the tiny airport.
Nonesuch, you are overlooking that home values are way higher in that area of MA. The tax rate may be lower, but homes are more valuable. My house in Nashua would be worth almost double in Westford. I still recommend MA for other reasons you stated.
They do this over & over...... If my 4 bedroom 2400sq house in Londonerry is worth 275k that same house in most of eastern MA would be worth 475k to 700k. Your property taxes in NH are going to be the same, or lower than those Massachusetts properties. Thus NH property taxes are no all that different from Massachuseets.
So......if you are moving to NH don't buy into this property tax myth. Like Avlis 13013 pointed out the sky-high home values in much of Massachusetts make their property taxes as high as NH.
I own a small rental property just under 1000sft 10 miles outside of Boston: property taxes in 2013: a little over 5k. It really gets old seeing this bad info passed on to people who are looking to move up here
Last edited by Brave Stranger; 07-26-2013 at 08:18 PM..
While I thank you for your worries about my culture shock, I am ok with that. To move to MA and closer to Boston with the higher taxes, home prices and busier towns I might as well stay here! Those are the reasons we are moving.
While I thank you for your worries about my culture shock, I am ok with that. To move to MA and closer to Boston with the higher taxes, home prices and busier towns I might as well stay here! Those are the reasons we are moving.
Go to NNEREN.COM. Take the MLS number you find on realtor.com and plug that into NNEREN. The taxes should be listed.
They do this over & over...... If my 4 bedroom 2400sq house in Londonerry is worth 275k that same house in most of eastern MA would be worth 475k to 700k. Your property taxes in NH are going to be the same, or lower than those Massachusetts properties. Thus NH property taxes are no all that different from Massachuseets.
So......if you are moving to NH don't buy into this property tax myth. Like Avlis 13013 pointed out the sky-high home values in much of Massachusetts make their property taxes as high as NH.
I own a small rental property just under 1000sft 10 miles outside of Boston: property taxes in 2013: a little over 5k. It really gets old seeing this bad info passed on to people who are looking to move up here
Absolutely true. People need to look at both the tax rate and the assessed value to understand the full property tax picture. My Atkinson house is assessed at $280K with an 18.00 tax rate. Now if my house was in Burlington MA, it would probably be assessed at $600K with a tax rate of 11.55; this would result in an annaul tax bill of approximately $7K. My Atkinson tax bill is roughly 25% lower than that Burlington estimate. MA property tax rates look attractive when viewed in isolation but rates alone don't tell the story.
I am going to be a cheerleader for "Dover, NH". My daughter has lived there for over 20 years and they love the community. You would easily find something you like for under $500K. It has a very nice downtown with shops, Restaurants, nice library and a Children's Museum that used to be located in Portsmouth. Also Dover is within about a 15-20 minuted drive from the ocean, which is a big plus. Check out Portsmouth pictures and information on Google. Sounds like it might be what you are looking for. Also Durham, where the University of NH is located is only about 20 minutes west of Dover. Amtrac - The Northester, stops in Dover center on it's way to Boston. My grand daughter uses it alot when traveling from Boston, where she lives, back to Dover.
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Consider Westford, Massachusetts?
