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Rye and NewCastle? Oh....Newington too off the top of my head. Your right....lower rates and more expensive valuations generally......but they all also have something else in common.....no school districts if I am not mistaken. They all are shipped out to a local.....Portsmouth for all I think. Rye has an elementary.....
Only issue with Newcastle, Rye, and Newington is the homes are more expensive for the same home elsewhere.....although over time? I like all 3, but just couldnt do Rye and I lived off Lang Rd for a bit over a year so we really looked around here......we looked and the same home for 450 in Rye was 340-ish(or less generally) in Durham/Madbury in 2006/7(most homes are 400ish it seems to me), and a tad less in Lee. Portsmouth is nice....Greenland too. We looked at N.Hampton....but just found a waterfront home in Madbury that was our style, and was new with guaranteed plowing by the state, so we can always get out if we can get snowblower started. We get zero services from Madbury as even the police and fire come from Durham. Anyway.....you may look at Portsmouth....great town overall. Little more dense, but has pretty much everything and is 50 minutes from Boston and an hour or so from Portland, ME. I think the schools are good there too. Also is a tad cooler in summer and a bit warmer in winter. Good overall services......you can also have natural gas in most of Portsmouth. Plus, as mentioned, their prop taxes arent as high, but properties are a tad more overall....
You might pay more for a similar house, but if you pay less in taxes you are better off because your money is building equity in your home instead of a bottomless government pit. I have a few friends in Pittsfield who are paying the same monthly payment in property tax + mortgage on their 100k homes as friends up here in the Lakes region with their 200k+ homes.
Of course, there are other factors at play, too. Like OS school district, which people are obsessed about getting into.
You might pay more for a similar house, but if you pay less in taxes you are better off because your money is building equity in your home instead of a bottomless government pit. I have a few friends in Pittsfield who are paying the same monthly payment in property tax + mortgage on their 100k homes as friends up here in the Lakes region with their 200k+ homes.
Of course, there are other factors at play, too. Like OS school district, which people are obsessed about getting into.
You said it. We didnt have children in school when we moved here.....it was just the house in the right location. As I have said I am for all getting a great education.....but this is about 670/mo of my property tax bill. Ive also noticed our town likes to keep the spread equal.....2 to 1....so they are finding ways to spend money, needed or not, in my estimation. So as school taxes go up, mysteriously the ratio always stays the same. New fire truck this year, new library on the horizon.....purchases of parcels of land for "preservation"? Is that the best way to spend our funds? Fire truck....I guess, but remember we are a town of 2000-ish....and our truck is 27 years old.
Anyhow....yes, it seems ORSD is up on a pedestal as are a few other districts. I hear, dont actually know anyone, people move as soon as the kids are out of school, unless they work at UNH or very local....even then it may pay to move.
I have said they just keep sucking the money out of my home to pay for education......its costing a lot more than the 670/mo. On the other hand if it is in such demand our home value should be shooting up, but it is not. This is due to the property taxes I am sure. Buy a new vehicle too, and that is a shocker.....I paid 1100 for a new work van the first year....the second it dropped to 800 something.....then you pay tolls etc? Seems excessive here too. Everywhere I have lived my registrations were no more than 25 bucks....I also pay a state income tax just because I own my own business....why? So much for the no state income tax in NH.
Anyhow.....Levi said it. I have thought of Alton Bay or Wakefield, but that is just far enough to make it inconvenient. There is a point where I look to the future of retirement and I will have to pay 1000 month just to live in my own home.......so I look at sharing the expenses and dont like the idea of other taxes, I can see where a sales or income tax if applied straight to property expenses I probably would look at. I know that we moved specifically to NH because of the tax situation, but my attitude is a-changing. And I hate that!
Went under contract on a house in Lee. We are scheduled to close June 23rd. Thank you to those that offered comments and suggestions.
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