Relo: Work in Andover and raise family in NH (Salem: for sale, real estate)

[Wireless]

Hi,

I've been reading through the threads and have gotten some information but would like to ask for some inside information specific to my families relocation. My wife and I will be moving with our two girls, ages 2 and 7 as I have a job offer in Andover (my wife also works and will telecommute). While we currently live in Dallas-Fort Worth, I am from upstate NY and she is from the midwest so we grew up in the cold North (when it was really cold). I always wanted to live in NH and finally have an opportunity. However, as I understand it I will pay income tax in MA and high property taxes in NH (although we are writing our check for property taxes this month and it will be over $9k).

I am not considering living in MA because I assume that real estate is more expensive, and even if we can afford it we won't get the 1-2 acres and the beautiful outdoor scenery.

While our best times are in our backyard and we love the outdoors, we are also used to having plenty of restaurants and shopping nearby. We never go into downtown Dallas so having Boston an hour or so away is fine.

I am not concerned about political leanings.

We want good schools or course, a commute to Andover (exit 45 off 93) that is no more than 30-45 minutes (I've been commuting in DFW for years so I'm not afraid of what you might consider 'rush hour'). I'm afraid that we need to be closer to urban areas vs. rural (as much as I'd like to admit not...).

Our housing target price will probably be around $400k with 2000-3000 sqft, 1+ wooded acre, a country feel but only a 10-15 minute drive to a Costco or Sams (some of our favorite shopping stores). My wife loves her resale shops but not sure if she will have the access that she currently has here.

We will get a week of relo time to explore the area with a relo company, but I want to be knowledgeable and focus our time in some particular towns. Any areas/towns that we should look at based on these requirements? Any questions?

Thanks so much.

[mlynnsoucy]

Look into Salem, NH. Andover is about a 10 minute drive. I'm not sure about the property you're looking for, but Salem has everything else you want. It might be hard to find a 3000sf house with 1+ acre wooded lot within 15 min of major shopping but also within commuting distance of Mass.

Yes you'll have to pay Mass income tax. I don't own a house, so I'm not 100% on this, but I think $9000 a year in taxes is high for NH.

[CityGirl52]

As an alternative to the Salem, NH area you could also look on the seacoast of NH as well to see if that might appeal to you. You might want to check out Hampton, Hampton Falls, No. Hampton area; as well as Exeter. It's much less congested than Salem, NH. and for the price of home that you're able to shoot for? You'll really like the seacoast I bet. It's partly rural and a lot of scenic pretty roads all through the region with the ocean near you all the time.

I commute down to Andover from the seacoast and it's not even 35 minutes, if that. Just drive down I-95 then pick up I-495 for so long then one exit off I-93 and bingo you're there. It's a breeze. You won't mind it at all from this area of the state, if anything we're all spoiled because we have the best of both worlds here! Peace and quiet yet we can be anywhere else we want in no time without the traffic the rest of them have out there!

There's a Sam's Club in Seabrook, and a BJ's Wholesale in Portsmouth on Portsmouth Ave., where there's a lot of good stores that are located up through there and where a lot of us that live here, do our shopping. Seabrook is getting pretty good these days for shopping though too! It's got Staples, Shaw's, two Marketbaskets, Wal-Mart, TJ Maxx, Applebee's & Chili's. Portsmouth not only has their downtown charming seaport area but it also has the Fox Run Mall in Newington and there's also a plaza with Old Navy, Barnes & Nobles and a new stadium seat movie theater complex among their many attractions and many stores for that whole area near the town of Portsmouth, it's pretty popular up through there.

Good luck deciding on where to live, hope this helps....

[Wireless]

I had not even thought about the Seacoast, but if the commute to Andover is as you say, and the region has the NE charm yet urban appeal, we will definitely check it out. And if I tell my wife that we would be living in the Seacoast area (she is a water person whereas I'm a land person), she would be quite ecstatic.

Is the real estate and cost of living comparable along the Merrimack and Seacoast regions (basically the areas that commute into MA)?

Any other opinions? Hopefully I've given a good picture of our motivations. Everybody comes from different angles!

I talked to the recruiter and he told me that the Andover region is still much more expensive than in NH. That we could only expect to get half the house in MA vs. NH. Is this true in general?

Thanks alot. Very helpful information!

[woodchuck]

Originally Posted by Wireless

I had not even thought about the Seacoast, but if the commute to Andover is as you say, and the region has the NE charm yet urban appeal, we will definitely check it out. And if I tell my wife that we would be living in the Seacoast area (she is a water person whereas I'm a land person), she would be quite ecstatic.

Is the real estate and cost of living comparable along the Merrimack and Seacoast regions (basically the areas that commute into MA)?

Any other opinions? Hopefully I've given a good picture of our motivations. Everybody comes from different angles!

I talked to the recruiter and he told me that the Andover region is still much more expensive than in NH. That we could only expect to get half the house in MA vs. NH. Is this true in general?

Thanks alot. Very helpful information!

I made the commute from Londonderry to North Andover straight down I-93 for over 22 years. Most days it was a 30 minute drive. If there is an accident or other incident it will naturally take you longer. I worked for a major high tech company who offered me a salary and compensation package that was double anything I could find in NH. So, it was worth my while to pay the MA income tax and live in NH. Real estate in MA is probably twice what it is in NH but the MA property tax is much lower. MA does have a sales tax and income tax while NH doesn't. Homes are cheaper in NH but the property taxes are much higher than MA. So, as far as homes/taxes are concerned it's mostly a wash between the two states. Many years ago there was a financial advantage to buying a home in NH over MA but that has slowly faded away. It's still cheaper to live in NH overall.

Be advised that during the summer tourist season the traffic on the seacoast can be very heavy at times. On three day Holiday weekends the traffic on I-93 and I-95 heading north can be very heavy too. And on the following Monday everybody is heading back south which causes problems too.

[CityGirl52]

Well, when you live in Hampton or No. Hampton for instance we a lot of times won't go over to Hampton Beach or Rte 1 in the summer high season months. There's ways of avoiding it all together; we learned a long time ago how to avoid it all trust me. We have so many short cuts up through here, back roads and all that that you would be amazed if you saw half the people that live here zip here and there! We don't use Rte 1 in the winter months too much because we use all the back roads, it's easier and less lights! It's just the beauty of living on the seacoast having all these secret roads around the area!

If you end up living on the other side of Rte 1 over in Hampton Falls or Exeter? You have even more short cuts, believe me. There's a town next to Exeter called East Kingston, if you want rural, yet not even 10 minutes away is the town of Exeter and Rte 101 as well as being able to take back roads to Andover from there? I've done that a few times with a good friend from Andover who happened to know all the back roads from East Kingston all the way down through Haverhill, MA and the next thing I knew we were in Andover in two seconds flat! If there's a will; there's a way! You won't have to bother with the highway if you don't want to on some days, you can relax and not deal with the highway if you don't want to on most of the way down there; just zip on one of the back roads.
Time it and see what you think about going this way when you get here. You'll figure out a way of getting down to Andover, there's NO doubt in my mind! I'm starting back at my seasonal job in Andover in a few weeks, I'll be back on a roll with it in no time. You'll be
amazed with the different alternative roads from any of these towns I mention!

There's a sub-division called "The Orchards at Maplevale" of luxury homes
in East Kingston that I wanted to make sure you knew about. They use the Exeter school system which would be a plus for your kids. See if you can hook up with a real estate agent that will show you the different towns and property for sale. I saw these properties from driving over in that area a while ago. They're also listed with Masiello dot com. It was MLS 2624275. May be you can hook up with them when you are up here checking out the area around the seacoast. You at least will have it narrowed down if you concentrate on this vicinity. There's SO many little towns that you could settle in. There's Hampton Falls, Brentwood, East Kingston, Kingston, Exeter, Stratham, Hampton, North Hampton, Greenland and Newfields I can't forget that town. It's right next to Exeter and REALLY charming and very New Englandy, when you see it you'll know because as soon as you see their general store? Pass that little store? Then you passed the town, it's priceless.

When you're driving through this region? I always tell people to go to Exeter FIRST. Drive through the center of town and you'll see quite a New England town there. At their gazebo in the center of town? Go past it and on the right hand side down a ways, there's Swazey Park. Drive right in to it and go along the banks of the river here. Drive along until you come out and this is the road you take to get to Newfields, NH. You'll really enjoy this scenic little drive I'm sending you on. You can keep going like a horse shoe and up in Durham you can head back and check out Portsmouth this way, then you'll be seeing the area again as you head back this way. So from Newfields area stay on that same road all the way until you come out to the Stratham Veterinary Hospital, it's blue and on your left. Then a set of lights just beyond this complex Then take a left here. Go all the way and if you want to see the UNH campus? Just keep following the signs for Durham, you'll be there in no time. It's quite a nice campus! You can have lunch at the New England Center here if you want, the students do an amazing job with it here. On weekends you can't get near their brunch! It's packed all the time, especially when the students are here.

Again, good luck!

[CityGirl52]

I forgot I wanted to tell you about Andover. YES it's quite expensive to live there compared to living in the state of NH. It always was. When you drive through the area near Andover's Phillips Academy? There's quite a lot of old money in through here, by that I mean stately older homes with massive front lawns and the stunning landscaping to go with it. You will see all these beautiful older colonials, victorians and huge estates behind big rock walls and the newer mega-homes scattered here and there. It's very charming though and quite nice. Actually when I first saw it a few years ago? I thought it was a lot like Exeter, NH from what I saw of it all, you'll see a lot of what's right in Andover up in Exeter; it's very similar. Exeter of course has the Phillips Exeter Academy and it's the sister campus to Andover's. Also, Exeter has the Loaf N Ladle for home made bread! I didn't see one like it in Andover! I personally think you're going to like Exeter more than the center of Andover's town by far! It's got a lot of character, a lot of charm to it and some neat shops that your family will really like a lot. If you live in any of the towns I mentioned? You can very easily get to the town of Exeter in no time.

There's Andover where the older stately type homes are and then there's No. Andover. I thought No. Andover was filled with more newer sub-divisions with a lot of young couples and from what I've been told that's exactly the case there. I don't think it's as expensive as living right in Andover but it's close from what I've been told.

[Wireless]

Thanks CityGirl! That is some great information and I'll print it out for reference. It seems like there are sooooo many small towns to choose from. I don't think we will be able to look at them all during our week long house hunting trip. So this helps to narrow it down...some.

You listed alot of positives about the areas you mentioned. Is there any areas to avoid? I've read some posts about how Newmarket is to be passed by. Is this true? Anywhere else?

It sounds like we can keep the commute to Andover within 30 minutes and still have alot to choose from.

I'd like to eliminate some of the areas. Right now I don't see much to eliminate in the Merrimack and Seacoast regions...

THanks again!

[CityGirl52]

Wireless, I sent you a PM, look for it! It's about the seacoast towns. If you stick to the towns I mentioned previously, you'll be so much better off instead of any that I DIDN'T mention! I PM'd you a few towns that I DIDN'T talk about here. Well, I always feel bad putting that type of stuff on City-Data! I feel as if it's insulting to people that live in that particular town, so out of respect to all of them? I'll PM you instead, it's easier on my part, thanks!

[Wireless]

Great information so far. I've kinda narrowed down the area geographically as follows (referenced from Andover): NW towards Londonderry along route 93; North towards Chester; East towards Exeter, South down 101/495 back into Andover along the border.

That seems like a good chuck of geography that includes the Southern Merrimack and Seacoast regions. It also seems to stay close to a 30 minute commute.

I see alot of small lakes in the area. Are they generally recreational lakes with motor boats? Is it possible to get homes on the lakes for under $500k?

Much appreciated!