Relocating from the Pacific Northwest to NH or ME (Manchester: sales, real estate)

[jc1912]

Thank you in advance for your replies, tips, and pointers! We are a younger family relocating from the Seattle area to the Northeast. We are looking at both NH in the Bedford area and Portland, Maine. We would have to focus on these areas since that's where my company could relocate me.

Our biggest needs are:
- Good schools (our kids will be school age in two more years)
- Fairly quiet, neighborly area. We are very live and let live.
- Close to recreation (HIKING!)
- Reasonable distance to work (hoping for no more than an hour commute)

We are not really big city folks, but we do like dinners out and easy access to amenities. We love the Northwest, but we are definitely NOT looking for another Seattle.

Does anyone have suggestions for good areas to focus on around these cities? Places to avoid?

We are going to be flying out in early January for a first look at both areas. This will probably be the first of several trips. If you had three days in each place, any recommendations on where to focus initially?

If anyone has recommendations on a good realtor, and you are NOT a realtor yourself, please feel free to direct message me.

Thank you again!

[Verseau]

Hi jc!

It sounds like it shouldn't be too hard to find what you're looking for in NH or ME. Quiet, tranquil towns abound and "live and let live" is the New England way.

I guess where you look depends really on what size town you're looking for. New Hampshire only has a true few "cities" (which we usually consider as having over 30,000 people or so), which are small by most peoples' standards. Manchester is our largest city with 100,000 people; Bedford is a suburb with a bit over 20,000.

Outside of these areas, most of the towns are fairly small. If you're really looking for quiet, small town New England, then I would suggest looking to the west and north of Bedford. The further you go in these directions, the more rural the state becomes, and hiking opportunities are plentiful (especially up north, nearer to the White Mountains). Of course, regardless of where you are in the state, hiking trails are always just a few minutes away.

Other members on this forum know the southern part of the state much better than I do, but I'll offer up what I know. Bedford itself has a great school system as far as I know, as does the neighboring town of Amherst. These towns are "suburban" but I think it's certainly possible to find a sense of privacy in them. After traveling the country and seeing other suburbs, I've realized that the suburbs in New England tend to be very green, with larger plots of lands and very few subdivisions in comparison.

Anyway, if you want a smaller town, I would suggest Hopkinton, Henniker, or Canterbury. From what I know, all of these towns have some of the better schools in the region and provide easy access to both the mountains / lakes as well as the numerous amenities of nearby Concord. However, they are a bit farther from Bedford but should still be within your preferred commute time.

The problem with the smaller towns is that, as a general rule, the schools tend to be not quite as good as those in larger towns, but I think the three I listed above are exceptions to that rule.

As for Maine, I can't offer quite as much help with respect to schools, but I think you can find the same kind of towns you're looking for near Portland as well. Of course, finding the right fit also depends on your budget, so that might be useful for figuring out which towns are best for you.

Hope that helped somewhat. Good luck on your search!

PS: Oh, and don't get scared off by the weather in January. Make sure to visit sometime May-October (*especially* October) before making your decision!

[rmcewan]

Murderous taxes in Maine. But the coast up around Portland there is BEAUTIFUL.

[BF66389]

Making a few assumptions- I would suggest looking in NH around Nashua. Some areas with good schools (Hollis, Amherst, etc; Maine is not known for its education system); it has most-everything there to some degree and bigger everything else is under an hour away (jobs, mountains, lakes, rivers, ocean, big city) and the surrounding towns (Bedford, Amherst, Hollis) have that not-so-dense rural but not isolated environment it sounds like you want with good schools.

My wife and I moved to NH (rented at first) about a year ago from the Washington DC/VA area and then decided to buy in Hollis for many of the reasons that you discuss wanting to come here.

I dearly love Maine and would retire there/own a second home, but *in general* NH seems like it has more economic opportunities and opportunities for children.

As for jobs- it depends on your field. But obviously financial/computer/engineering related seems to have an easier time; or healthcare.

[BF66389]

Maine: Portland, Ogunquit, that area.
NH: Stay in Nashua, explore the immediate area one day (as in maybe Manchester-Nashua distance and closer), head west to Keene another (and mountains along the way, maybe head into VT), head east to Portsmouth another...look at map and see how close Boston is... I would add "head north to Franconia Notch & Mt. Washington"; but that's slightly further away (I still do it for a day though all the time).

[NH2008]

Portland is great. It does have some good public schools, there is a wonderful children's museum, and the restaurant scene is actually really good. There is a surprisingly strong food scene, in fact. There are some good hospitals. It's more expensive than the Bedford area, I think, and flights into the local airport (PWM) tend to be expensive, while flights into the Manchester airport (MHT) tend to be pretty inexpensive - something to think about if you fly a lot. Also, while Portland has Amtrak service into Boston, it's that much further away.

Bedford has a more suburban feel than neighboring towns Amherst and Hollis, which have retained more of the old houses and the historic downtown areas. Bedford has a fairly new high school and is a hop, skip and a jump from Manchester. It also has the Bedford Village Inn, which has a great restaurant. Hollis has excellent schools.

[seamusnh]

I have been to Portland a few times. Very nice city. Lots of restaurants and pubs downtown. It does have the advantage of the ocean....
Bedford NH is nice. I live in an ajoining town. Bedford built a new high school; before the Bedford kids went to West high in Manchester. There are a lot of nice towns in the Bedford area: Amherst, Mont Vernon, New Boston...

Kids - lots of young families in southern NH. Join a local pool and you'll meet people.
Recreation - Mount Monadnock is close by. Crotched Mountain for skiing. Portland is relatively flat and the skiing in Maine is farther from the coast.
Commute - if you work in Bedford, there are many towns where the commute will be 20 minutes or so...
Taxes are a concern. No income or sales taxes in NH. We have property tax but that is driven by how much house you buy and the money mostly goes to the schools.
Boston is always a factor (museums, red sox games, etc), especially as the kids get to be teenagers and want to escape "podunk New Hampshire". It is about 45 minutes from downtown Boston to the state line in NH (more if there is traffic or snow).

[mwdon]

We're moving to Southern New Hampshire from San Jose, California, so I understand the dilemma. You want to be close to amenities, but you also want the peace and quiet. We selected the Amherst/Bedford area (our house is close to the line between the two) for a number of reasons:

- Close to major highways/roads, but off the beaten path
- No State Income tax, no sales tax
- Close to larger metro area (Manchester) but outside of the hustle and bustle
- Close to a major metro area (Boston)
- Easy travel (Manchester airport)
- Reasonably close to shopping, restaurants (Manchester)
- Good schools (both Bedford and Amherst have good schools)
- Real estate a great value (but coming from Seattle, you might find it on par with Seattle. It's hugely less expensive than San Jose).
- Fair amount of industry, employers

Minuses
- Some areas are far away from the highway (Bedford is closer than Amherst)
- High property taxes (Amherst is higher than Bedford, but since Bedford built a new High School, they are almost on par with Amherst)
- Long commute to Boston (but you're going to be local, so...)

I fell in love with the area, and we're looking forward to living there.

[NH2008]

mwdon - we're moving from Silicon Valley too! Small world!

[mwdon]

NH2008 - Have you decided where you're going to settle? When are you moving? I'd love to compare notes!! :-)