wolfeboro sunapee keene-pros/cons (Concord, Laconia: rental, homes, good schools)

[NXC9900]

i just relocated from buffalo, ny to stoddard, nh which is about 15 mi outside of keene (in the woods lol) in order to go to school in keene... Now i'm not a "college student" lol i'm 26 yrs old and returning to school to get my graduate degree... not sure where your coming from but i've noticed a trend in ppl who have moved to keene for my program:
those that moved to keene from more "rural" areas find it AMAZING and there's SOOOO much to do!
those that moved from larger cities such as boston, ny, etc. are bored with the lack of stimulation LOL
i am some where in between but i don't feel i know the place well enough to judge it. i love the main st. area with all the shops, resturants, coffee shops. there's a few places to just sit outside on a nice morning and have a cup of tea or coffee or latte whatevers ur pleasure
i went to the colonial theater with some friends and it was nice! apparently they also show old movies there sometimes in addition to live performances.

i can't speak about schools or property taxes as i don't have kids and rent...

i'm actually sad that i'm going to be moving in june and won't get to know the area better but i'll be moving to the seacoast area which i hear is awesome!
i dont know if that helped at all but

[nhrocky]

Originally Posted by buck naked

Keene is a college town. It's fairly isolated from the rest of the state.

LOL, I seem to hear this alot on this board. I have never felt remote from the rest of NH. I suppose if you're looking for the convenience of hopping over to the shopping mall in 5 minutes, or a really quick trip to Boston, sure Keene might be out of the way for you. We get along quite well on this side of state without constant traffic, strip mall congestion, etc. While there might not be the full menu of entertainment services available like Boston or the NH seacoast, there is quite a bit here and I don't mean just movie theaters. There's a full service hospital in Keene and always has been. I was born in Keene's hospital when it was on Main Street and they did operations there too, way back when

I don't consider Chesterfield a suburb of Keene. Towns just aren't thought of in that way in this area, at least not that I've ever heard. Chesterfield covers the area west of Keene to the VT border, so you have quite a large area. There isn't any place in Chesterfield like the Main Street of Keene, though. To see movies or grocery shop you'll have to go to Keene or Brattleboro, depends which one you're closer to. There is a bank right at the intersection of Rt 9 & Rt 119 in Chesterfield by Spofford Lake or TDBN in West Chesterfield. There's a town beach at Spofford Lake.

The college has taken over a fairly substantial part of lower Main Street in Keene and the surrounding neighborhood. So that might be a consideration if you're looking to live right in the immediate Main Street area, but there's more than enough outlying streets and neighborhoods to avoid any noise problems or situations with college students.

stoddard, nh which is about 15 mi outside of keene (in the woods lol)

lol, ok, I do consider Stoddard out there in the woods My daughter had a friend out there she was visiting and I needed a full page of directions to find their house.

[NXC9900]

thankfully my place is really easy to find and its almost directly off rt 9 soo not so bad so far people have been able to find it w/o much guidance... especially not a whole page!

[notdancingqueen]

we moved to the Sunapee area 4 months ago - we really like it so far. New London is 5-7 minutes away (shopping, amenities, restaurants), there are lakes and obviously mountains everywhere, schools are great (and smaller classes - my 4th grader has less than 20 in her class), 90 minutes to Boston, 75 to the Seacoast, 30-35 to Concord, 45 from Manchester airport.

Try towns like North Sutton, Sunapee, New London, parts of Wilmot and Warner... as far as the summer folks, we mostly noticed them in New London and at Sunapee lake itself...barely a blip on the radar screen for us, though we came from the Baltimore/DC metro area so "traffic" here and traffic there don't even compare.

[buck naked]

I'm so glad you like it ndq...it is one of my favorite places in the whole world to visit. I don't live there...but I wouldn't mind living there.


In addition to skiing, I enjoy the artist festivals at the mountain.

[CometVoyager]

Originally Posted by buck naked

I love Sunapee the best of the three mentioned in the OP - but I'm a skier! the lake is very beautiful as well.

my only problem with Wolfeboro is it's a tourist town, and traffic doesn't move during the summer months. Prices are higher as well in the grocery store. It's an affluent town and the services reflect that.

I agree with you on that Buck! Hope all is going well!

Comet!

[ssrhb]

You live in a gorgeous place!

We flew in late yesterday and drove around the lakes region today. Now we see what you mean about Wolfeboro, just beautiful, but maybe a little too affluent for our taste. We liked some of the smaller towns around the lakes and parts of Meredith, but heard about how busy it can be in the summer.

So, tomorrow is Sunapee! Thanks for the suggestions notdancingqueen, we'll be checking them all out. BTW, any good local seafood spots? If it's as pretty there we might just stay!

We'll be up here for the week if anyone has any more ideas.

Thanks again.

[Ken E]

Originally Posted by ssrhb

You live in a gorgeous place!

We flew in late yesterday and drove around the lakes region today. Now we see what you mean about Wolfeboro, just beautiful, but maybe a little too affluent for our taste. We liked some of the smaller towns around the lakes and parts of Meredith, but heard about how busy it can be in the summer.

So, tomorrow is Sunapee! Thanks for the suggestions notdancingqueen, we'll be checking them all out. BTW, any good local seafood spots? If it's as pretty there we might just stay!

We'll be up here for the week if anyone has any more ideas.

Thanks again.

Try Kevin's Cafe in Moultonboro Good seafood!

[nhfinehomes]

Ahh, the "low taxes, good schools, great small town feel with culture" search in New Hampshire. I know it well. My wife and I, both life long residences of New Hampshire, are currently hunting for a home for ourselves and facing the same issues. In my opinion, I prefer to be closer to the central part of the State with easy access to Interstate 93. This affords us good accessibility to all the other regions of NH. We have discovered Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools. for reasearching schools on a preliminary basis. Towns around Lake Winnipesaukee have some of the best schools in the State and the lowest tax rates. (Meredith, Moultonboro, Tuftonboro, Wolfeboro). They are all great little towns with plenty of places to eat and a decent amount of year-round, community activities. However.... we feel they are a little far for regular access to the more major population centers like Portsmouth, Concord & Manchester. I grew up in Loudon, just north of Concord. It is decent town, with decent schools and moderate taxes. The 'down town' area is not your picturesque NH village but it was a very convenient location. Not sure what you plan to do for work but keep in mind the further North you go, the further you get from major medical area, public transit, airports, and the services associated with mid sized cities. I've evalulated just about all towns in southern NH so feel free to ask me questions about specific towns and I'll be happy to answer.

[vsaksena]

Originally Posted by NXC9900

those that moved to keene from more "rural" areas find it AMAZING and there's SOOOO much to do!
those that moved from larger cities such as boston, ny, etc. are bored with the lack of stimulation LOL

This coming from someone who moved here from Chicago; I will be honest when I first moved here back in 2001, it was well "under-whelming" but did not take more than a couple months to grow on me & my wife, we got around to appreciate the very nice & accepting neighbors, the great restaurants, the scenic beauty, proximity to skiing, Mt. Washington etc...

Boston, NYC, Montreal aren't that far (just an overnight trip away), Yeah sure my wife would love to have a Saks here (to put into perspective she is petite with a cap P, and thats one of the very few stores which carry dresses she likes) but we have learnt to take that into stride & make a day trip out of heading into Boston. Everything else we get fine here in Keene...

The public library here is awesome (much better than I have seen in other places, I am comparing to highly ranked college towns)

For the size of Keene, its amazing the variety of restaurants we have, Italian, French, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Northern Italian, some awesome Pizza etc..... apart from the usual chain places...

Summers are a delight with the summer concert series, bbq by the Surry dam....

Colonial has some good plays & indie movies (talking abt plays Surry & Peterborough both have the player series)

If you need any other info pls feel free to PM me......