Exeter Fantastic ;-) (Manchester, Nashua, Concord: homes, job market, neighborhoods)

[WinterWonder]

We visited NH recently and stumbled upon Exeter. It was fantastic! We LOVED it! Very bustling, lots of activity, and still a beautiful, historic New England town . Downtown was fantastic.

We are relocating our family to NH, looking for homes this April.

Tell me, forum members, are there any other towns that resemble Exeter??

Thanks!

[Suzet2262]

WinterWonder, I am glad you had such a great trip!!! Exeter, from what I have seen and read, sounds wonderful. A lot of people on this Forum have said some nice things about the town. I am still in So Calif, my family is planning our move to Keene in March, it was going to be in Oct but we had to change the dates. We are very excited. Good luck to you and your family on your up coming move. This Forum is full of helpful people.

[Valerie C]

Exeter is one of the few towns to have such a great downtown area, what's nice about it is that is the whole package: downtown, great schools, great neighborhoods. There really are so very few towns like Exeter.

Other than the cities that have downtowns (Manch, Nashua, Portsmouth, Concord) the only towns I can think of that have real downtowns (not just a common with a couple of stores) is Derry, Dover, and of course Keene. Tara keeps posting these wonderful videos of Keene, and makes us all want to go live there, or at least to visit, and for some reason I really like being in downtown Dover. I am just drawn to places with downtowns (hate malls)

I think Exeter has a perfect location--super close to the seacoast. Did you follow Route 111 out to where it dumps onto 1A on that beautiful stretch of roadway? The schools are one of the highest rated in the state (sau16) There are great neighborhoods all over the place, and 101 east or west to get you to where ever you need to be (Rte 95 just a quick hop to get you to Maine or Mass, 101 west to Manchester Airport. Hope you made it to Loaf and Ladle too, while you were visiting!!

Plus the towns that surround Exeter all have better than average reputations, so it's not like Exeter is the crown jewel with cruddy areas all around it... Hampton Falls, South Hampton, Kensington (bedroom communities) with rural, curvy country roads. Major shopping is close (along Rte 108, and Route 1 from Seabrook to Portsmouth with every shopping store you could ever need.

[GregW]

I love Exeter as well. Defenitely try the "Loaf and Ladle Tavern" down by the river.

[Tarastomsgirl]

Exeter is a wonderful little town, and you're close to other great places like Hampton Beach! Thank you Val for the compliment on the videos I invite you all to move to Keene lol.. I agree with the other towns like Dover and Derry, they're very cute also!

[unknown stuntman]

Try also the "Tavern", "Penang", and "11 Water Street" in downtown for excellent food. The Peel has great breakfast (just went to a full scale breakfast menu a year ago), as does the infamous Rogan's just beyond downtown as you head north on 108 towards Stratham.
I would strongly beg to differ about the vibrancy of Exeter however, particularly when it isn't the summer time. Really it is a very sleepy town and the classic Ioka theatre is only open sporadically to the public, even on weekends. Businesses close shop early, last call often is 10 pm on a Saturday! Old money, old habits, not much resolve to change. That can be good and bad. Wonderful town, but not for the singles-minded, just to be forewarned. When we are out on a Saturday beyond 9 pm, we always scoot up to Dover or Portsmouth.

[vter]

Hanover is another town like Exeter.

[Valerie C]

But Unknown, at least it DOES have a downtown, where so many towns just don't. I agree that if nightlife is what you're looking for, you've got to take a little ride. I highly recommend Mojito's in Dover, you can even bring the kids in during the day/early evening for some Wii games to keep them amused

[WinterWonder]

Originally Posted by Tarastomsgirl

Exeter is a wonderful little town, and you're close to other great places like Hampton Beach! Thank you Val for the compliment on the videos I invite you all to move to Keene lol.. I agree with the other towns like Dover and Derry, they're very cute also!

Tara - what is the commuting time to the bigger cities?

We had visited Keene on a previous visit, and loved it, too. Any town with a "downtown" puts a sparkle in my eyes ;-)

Our only concern is, if we do not land jobs in Keene, it's kind of out there... My husband and I both have white collar jobs, he's a computer programmer and I'm a CPA.

What kind of opportunities / possibilities are in the Keene area?

[Tarastomsgirl]

Originally Posted by WinterWonder

Tara - what is the commuting time to the bigger cities?

We had visited Keene on a previous visit, and loved it, too. Any town with a "downtown" puts a sparkle in my eyes ;-)

Our only concern is, if we do not land jobs in Keene, it's kind of out there... My husband and I both have white collar jobs, he's a computer programmer and I'm a CPA.

What kind of opportunities / possibilities are in the Keene area?

Well I'm not complete familiar with the job market in Keene, becasue I do not work I don't pay much attention to tell the honest truth.. However, I do know that the Hospital has job openings for secretaries and the such, and sometimes the goverment does also. So I would start there and work my way out.. Try looking in the Keene Sentinel in the Classifides section . The only other thing I can think to do is call or e-mail the keene chamber of commerce, ask for a relocation packet, and they'll have info on the job market as well as housing and other vital information.

As for distances, we are an hour from Concord, roughly 45-60 to Manchester, and about 45 from Nashua. We're 2 hours from Boston... We're also about 20 mins from the Mass border and 15 to Vermont/Brattleboro.. Sorry I can't be of more help, there might be someone on here who is more familiar with the job market in the Keene area.. I hope you can find with you're looking for, and Keene is a wonderful town, great downtown with lots going on any season. Including our famous Pumpkin festival and Ice/snow festival