Why NH vs. MA ??? (Nashua, Derry: sales, car insurance, mortgage)

[DMickey28]

Someone please shed some light on this picture for me. My DH and I are from Massachusetts but have lived away for the last 5 years. We are moving home this summer with our 2 year old boy and finally going to settle down and buy a house. We are in our early 30's. My DH works in Woburn right now but will be looking for another job once we get settled so we need to be a reasonable distance to the 128 corridor ... by reasonable I mean within 45 minutes to a hour in the AM and PM.

We are thinking Southern New Hampshire or area's in Massachusetts. I go back and forth. We would like to keep our montly mortage/taxes under $2000, $2300 max. It seems we can afford a larger home cost in MA because the property taxes are less compared to New Hampshire. Since DH is working in MA, we will have the income tax issue regardless, along with buying gas in MA and other commuting expenses.

Were is the pull to live in NH vs. MA?

We are a conservative, quite couple. Other than presidential elections we have not voted but we have not owned property or had kids getting close to school age before. This will probably change our voting habits to include more local government soon. We would like a simple, newer/clean house with a little land but nothing over an acre. We have family from Bellingham, MA down through the Cape but don't need to live in their backyard.

Are the towns just that much more small-town community feel in NH? Is that the draw?

I am not at all trying to knock anything, just honestly trying to understand. Where is our value as a small family starting out going to be? I think we would prefer the lifestlye in Southern New Hampshire more than some/most of the towns in Massachusetts but is it worth the extra cost? I always thought that living in Southern New Hampshire would be less expensive but it doesn't seem to be turning out that way.

Our cap for a mortgage is $325K but in New Hampshire it looks as though we need to keep that down to $290K is many towns (Derry, Londonderry etc) due to the high property taxes where we can afford more towards the $325K mark in towns like Bellingham, MA where the property taxes are much less.

Thanks!

[buck naked]

It seems we can afford a larger home cost in MA because the property taxes are less compared to New Hampshire.

the taxes end up being the same because MA's income tax makes up the difference - $ for $ you will get a bigger house in NH for the same amount of money....unless you don't have income.

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by buck naked

It seems we can afford a larger home cost in MA because the property taxes are less compared to New Hampshire.

the taxes end up being the same because MA's income tax makes up the difference - $ for $ you will get a bigger house in NH for the same amount of money....unless you don't have income.

... or unless you don't pay income tax in Mass, like the retirement income for retired local, state, and federal workers.

But if you have taxable income, then yeah, the combination of property taxes and income taxes is the same or less in New Hampshire. And if you look at the total tax burden (again, if you have taxable income), New Hampshire is significantly better than Massachusetts. New Hampshire is pretty consistently within the lowest five states in per capita tax burden, while Massachusetts is pretty consistently within the highest ten states.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed

[DMickey28]

This is what I don't understand.

From what I have been told, since DH will be working in Massachusetts we will have to pay MA Income tax on his income.

My examples:
$300K house in Derry, NH with a tax rate of approx (Can't remember the exact numbers.) $25.52/$1000

vs.

$300K house in Bellingham, MA with a tax rate of $10.08/$1000.

We would still be paying MA income tax with both. So our take home at the end of the day would be cut by Federal (SS/Medicare etx) and MA state tax regardless of it we live in NH right?

Am I seriously missing something here or am I super confused? We live in Florida right now and don't have to deal with State Tax here either ...

[Brave Stranger]

This is a cultural issue too, is it not ? You will get more house in NH for less house & car insurance & no sales tax on what you purchase. I suspect you will only be spending in total what.....a thousand or so dollars extra a year ? I can tell you this: the public schools in southern NH are much better than most of the middle class towns in Mass. Come on up

[GregW]

Be certail to include commuting costs. Woburn is not on a mass transit line from NH so you would have to drive. I currently pay about $300 per month to take the bus to downtown Boston. The $300 is less than parking the car.

I suggest looking for an older house in Woburn within wakling distance or a very short drive to work for a lower overal tax and transit cost. Look for a house you would want to live in and don't consider any speculative gain in your descision. Housing price speculation is likely dead for the next couple of decades.

[seamusnh]

The tax rate ($/1000) is meaningless until you compare towns and houses. For example, when we moved to NH from MA in the mid-1990's, we had settled on new construction in a town near Nashua. For comparison, my wife went to Westford MA for the day and checked houses there. To get the same size house in Westford, it would have cost a lot more and the valuation would have been much higher by the town. While Westford's tax rate is lower than my town ($13.97 vs. $20.06), we would have paid more actual dollars in Westford. I have a co-worker that lives in Sudbury MA and he pays $16k for a house similar to mine.

The other factor is the school systems. Most of my friends and relatives in MA (that can afford to do so) send their kids to private school from 7th or 9th grade onward. While some are well off, my brother in law is a one-man plumbing business and his wife works full time as a nurse so they can pay $14k/year to send their son to a private high school.

Woburn is 20 miles from NH. Check it out. NH is a great place to raise a family.

BTW, my car insurance was half in NH what it was in MA; same cars and same drivers.

[buck naked]

My examples:
$300K house in Derry, NH with a tax rate of approx (Can't remember the exact numbers.) $25.52/$1000

vs.

$300K house in Bellingham, MA with a tax rate of $10.08/$1000.


did you LOOK at the houses to compare? sometimes there is a BIG difference in what you get for your money....even in NH, a $300K house in southern NH will not be as big as a $300K house in northern NH.

[Brave Stranger]

Woburn schools are JUNK ! Don't even waste your time thinking about putting your children in such a school system. Like seamusnh said unless you are in a rich Mass town you will wind up sending your kids to private school.....yes, it's that bad. For the few thousand dollars a year at most NH is a better situation IMO. Remember your car insurance & home insurance will be about 50% cheaper up here. And no sales tax adds hundreds of dollars to your pocket. If this is ALL about the money then perhaps Mass makes a little more sense, but I even doubt that......but if it's about quality of life then NH wins hands down IMO.

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by DMickey28

This is what I don't understand.

From what I have been told, since DH will be working in Massachusetts we will have to pay MA Income tax on his income.

My understanding is, yes. Your husband's employer in Massachusetts should withhold Mass state income tax, and as residents of NH, you will need to file a non-resident Mass state income tax return. You pay no income tax in NH.

See: Non-Resident Income Tax