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Ok, can you tell me a few good school districts in areas within lets say 30 mins of Manchester & Nashua? We heard Londonderry is real good, but the taxes are a bit high, yet I know that high taxes mean better schools. But what other areas are safe, clean and have good schools? We are looking to buy a home no higher then 310,000.
Bow is between Manchester and Concord, is about 30 minutes from Manchester, and is considered one of the best school districts in the state. Amherst right by Nashua also has a good reputation, but housing and taxes are really pretty high there. Bow has pretty high taxes, but I think more reasonable housing choices overall.
Hollis is the top-rated public high school in the state. All the schools there are supposed to be excellent and it borders Nashua. Amherst is supposed to have excellent elementary schools but the high school is controversial. Bedford is a suburb of Manchester and has highly-regarded schools with a brand new high school. All of these towns are pricey.
If you go a bit further north but stay away from the Seacoast, you'll get farther from Nashua and Manchester but pay less for a house in a good school district. Bow is supposed to be great and there are others, too. Southern NH is expensive in large part because it's so close to Boston, so as you get farther away it gets cheaper.
While Concord, Nashua and Manchester has the reputation of being NH's "golden triangle" with job opportunities and great schools, keep in mind that there are other areas of the state where the schools are very good as well. As noted here, the Exeter area and many of the surrounding towns are places you might consider, many within that 30 minutes that you mentioned. Your price range might limit you in the Hollis, Bedford & Amherst areas, depending on the time of year that you move, you could get lucky (prices are traditionally highest from March through July, and start dipping at the end of the summer. This year prices have lowered since last year, so by Sept/Oct/Nov 2008, I would imagine there will be folks ready to negotiate to YOUR benefit
I have taken the liberty of posting this response to a question from positiveone.
Well, let's see. I, luckily, have not had to look for a job for over 20 years so I do not know about the local markets. We are within commuting range of Boston. I know that because I take a Concord Trailways bus to and from Boston every weekday. That is currently costing $69 per week and well worth it.
We do not seem to have many problems with illegal aliens. The local orchards have had a long-term arrangement with some Jamaican folks that work the orchards during the summer and winter in Jamaica. The Mack family that runs the orchard on RT 128, Mack’s Apples, have been very good neighbors for about two and a half centuries. The fresh Mutsu cider is unbelievable.
We don’t have any problems with unidentified flying objects but the identified one are a minor nuisance. The daily UPS bird approaches Manchester airport low enough to be picking pine cones out of the landing gear. That plane is loud. Be aware that the daily flocking in the late afternoon makes outdoor activities a noisy proposition anywhere along High Range Road. The housing prices reflect this problem. That being said the planes are disturbing about 20 min per day and the rest of the time that area is really nice.
We do not have much of a flooding problem. The area is hilly and we have worked to prevent excessive development with the attendant parking lots and rapid runoff. We also have a couple of large swamps that moderate stream flow. Again, there can be flooding when we have a five-inch rain in 4 hours. That is rare but it does happen.
There is plenty of shopping considering I do not use about 90% of the stores. There are three fair sized grocery stores, several drug stores (there must have been an accidental drug store seed release because we now have three of them at crossroads alone), several garden suppliers, a good hardware store (Bensons on apple tree lane) and a Home Despot, and a whole flock of Dunkin Donuts (best coffee IMHO is at the 7-eleven gas station on Rt 102 by exit four) and much (too much) more.
The schools are excellent and expensive but, again IMHO, the town is getting what it pays for. The town government seems to work fairly well without any overt corruption and the town library is top notch for a small facility. We have an excellent Cable TV access center with six channels of public broadcasting in case you really want to listen to a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting as a soporific.
I have written so much in response to your question I am also going to post it on the main page. I hope you don’t mind.
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