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Hope you had a great weekend on the coast. It is not a bad commute especially if you are living in a town like Greenland NH where you can pick up right on 101
Haven't really had a winter in 16 years since moving out west. Hopefully I can adjust. Lol! What school districts are the best in the coast?
Every winter is different from the one before... this past winter, we had barely any snow at all---but the winter before we were digging out after snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm (and many people needed to have their roofs shoveled, because we had no melting from the very 1st snowstorm right through 100+ inches of snow that fell... Expect and prepare for the worst, and have a pleasant surprise if that does not come to pass
Directly on the seacoast, Rye/Greenland and Hampton Falls are highly rated, trailed by Portsmouth. Oyster River Districts are historically very good, but all 3 towns (Lee, Madbury & Durham) have higher than average property tax rates, and are very rural (Durham being less so, due to the influence of UNH. Cute downtown, but student-dominated, no real shops, mostly coffee & sandwich shops). Seriously, you can't go wrong with Exeter or Stratham--both towns hug Rte 101, and super close to the seacoast too. These were my top 2 towns when we moved our family back to New Hampshire 16 years ago (we wanted easy access to Maine as well), but then we found the perfect house in Londonderry, and the location worked much better for my husband's commute to Massachusetts. While any of the towns in 'the Exeter District' (sau 16) could be considered, Exeter has the downtown and Stratham has the amenities that you might consider important, while most of the other towns are considered bedroom communities and more rural (thinking back, I think it was you who wanted to have some nearby services).
Rte 101 from the coast to Manchester is pretty much a straight-shoot east/west, with nowhere close to the amount of traffic that makes the trek down into Massachusetts and back to NH in a daily basis. While the widening on 93 is making a big difference to many people's lives on this side of the border, the sheer number of travelers each day in 'rush' hour means many miles of brakelights and slow-downs after you cross into Massachusetts...
Every winter is different from the one before... this past winter, we had barely any snow at all---but the winter before we were digging out after snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm (and many people needed to have their roofs shoveled, because we had no melting from the very 1st snowstorm right through 100+ inches of snow that fell... Expect and prepare for the worst, and have a pleasant surprise if that does not come to pass
Directly on the seacoast, Rye/Greenland and Hampton Falls are highly rated, trailed by Portsmouth. Oyster River Districts are historically very good, but all 3 towns (Lee, Madbury & Durham) have higher than average property tax rates, and are very rural (Durham being less so, due to the influence of UNH. Cute downtown, but student-dominated, no real shops, mostly coffee & sandwich shops). Seriously, you can't go wrong with Exeter or Stratham--both towns hug Rte 101, and super close to the seacoast too. These were my top 2 towns when we moved our family back to New Hampshire 16 years ago (we wanted easy access to Maine as well), but then we found the perfect house in Londonderry, and the location worked much better for my husband's commute to Massachusetts. While any of the towns in 'the Exeter District' (sau 16) could be considered, Exeter has the downtown and Stratham has the amenities that you might consider important, while most of the other towns are considered bedroom communities and more rural (thinking back, I think it was you who wanted to have some nearby services).
Rte 101 from the coast to Manchester is pretty much a straight-shoot east/west, with nowhere close to the amount of traffic that makes the trek down into Massachusetts and back to NH in a daily basis. While the widening on 93 is making a big difference to many people's lives on this side of the border, the sheer number of travelers each day in 'rush' hour means many miles of brakelights and slow-downs after you cross into Massachusetts...
Regarding school districts, there is no magic to what makes a "good" school district, if you judge by student performance. Just look at the demographics of the catchment area - the area served by the school. The correlation between parental background and the educational performance of their kids is VERY high.
A good tool is: Census Explorer which lets you drill down to individual census districts, which will be a town or part of one.
Exeter is one of the best districts in the state. Portsmouth schools are good- not as good as exeter but the taxes are reasonable and the schools are more diverse. Exeter is an easier commute to Manchester.
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