Need relocating advise about southern NH towns (Manchester, Nashua: houses, unemployed)

[herra_huu]

Hi everyone!
I have been reading this forum for half a year now...ever since we found out that my husband needs to relocate. We live in Brooklyn NY.His job will be in Burlington MA, and we do not want to live there. For me that is like highway hell, and would not be happy living there.
After talking to his colleagues, somebody recommended us to start looking from NH. And so we did. Love Amherst, Bedford, Hollis, Derry, Londonderry....All the towns are different, what I heard with good public schools .I love the idea, but here where I have questions that only people who live there can really answer me.

We are truly multicultural family, I'm from Scandinavia, my husband is from NYC, he is black, I am white. We have 2 elementary age mixed children. Is there a town or city in southern NH where we could blend in where there maybe is some mixed families?

Or is there a town we should definitely stay away?

I'm comfortable in snow and ice, rural living ( lived my first 19 years almost in arctic circle!) I know my husband feels more home in town or city. He needs to be able to see neighbors houses .

I haven't have chance to visit Manchester yet. What information I can get from the internet, City looks fine,( I have been living in Brooklyn for past 10 years, so almost anything looks safe and fine to me ) I love the older homes in north end. When I mention this city out loud, I almost heard gasp with horror look ---you surely don't want to live there! So why does it have such a bad reputation? How are the schools?

any information would be greatly appreciated!thanks!

[buck naked]

you won't have a problem being a mixed marriage....live and let live is the motto for the most part.


I've never heard Manchester described as having a bad reputation except by people that have never lived there.

Manchester is actually a pretty nice town, but has a different feel than the more rural areas you mentioned. The north end of Manchester is especially nice - in addition to the public schools, there is a couple of private schools as well. In addition to lots of shopping, Manchester has it's own ski area, public pools, a couple of skating rinks, and the public schools are not bad. They just have to fight for every dime that is spent because taxpayers foot the bill.



Welcome, welcome.
it's not a very big city, but it is the largest in this state.

[herra_huu]

Thanks
now that you mentioned, all the folks that I asked about Manchester lived someplace else....
they made it sound like you get robbed if you walk down the street in the middle of the day...people, gotta love them though thanks again!

[GotBackHome]

being honest... 'blend in?' probably no where. while there are black people, there aren't a lot. I think the more important question is 'will anyone care?' and the answer is pretty much the same 'probably not' People in NH don't really care that much what your skin color is or what your ethnicity is (long as it's legal), character and work ethic is much more important.

As far as Manchester goes, people here gasp and don't like it (those who don't live there) simply because in general NH folk don't like big cities and Manchester is the biggest city in the state! as cities of it's size go, it's perfectly fine. Now... I'm partial to Hollis because I grew up there, and maybe a little for Amherst because one set of grandparents used to live there. Hollis school system pretty much gets whatever it wants, and it is top notch. Hollis is rural, but not way out of touch. Nashua is only a few minutes away for chain store shopping, and Nashua is the 2nd biggest city.

[gf2020]

No offense intended to my NH colleagues, I work in NH, but I think you will find most MA towns more accomodating and receptive to your partiular situation.

Maybe Burlington is highway hell, but if you live 30 miles away in NH then your husband will be commuting in highway hell for over 2 hours each day. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Burlington, especially coming from NY.

Burlington has a very diverse racial and socioeconomic makeup, far more so than any of the other towns in the area. It has reasonable taxes and excellent schools, it is certainly worth considering as are other nearby MA towns like Chelmsford; or if your budget permits: Winchester or Bedford.

[herra_huu]

Thank you for input. I really appreciate it.

While MA would be more convenient for my husband commute, he doesn't mind traveling
1-1 1/2 hours to work and he would be happy in most places ( as long as there is neighbors nearby). He does have an option to work from home and go to the office as needed. We are already spending good 45-70min in subway everyday going to work from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

All this pondering (where to live) is done mostly by me, I guess us women think more ( too much sometimes) about our kids and their well being. Growing up in northern Scandinavia I would like to offer that type of environment for my kids too, and I think NH would fit to that bill better than MA.Also I really miss winter and snow. And we all know happy wife-happy life, happy family ; D

I do have an question, does it take 2 hours to drive from Manchester to Burlington one way in the morning? This sound like a long time and would get old really fast.

Thanks again!

[mal7014]

Manchester to Burlington takes just under 1 hour each way. That's without traffic. If you need to drive down to be at work by 8am, it could be 1.5 hours to get there.

There are plenty of great towns in the Burlington area. Burlington and Woburn can be affordable. If money is not an option, check out Lexington, Bedford, Winchester and Carlisle.

[buck naked]

does it take 2 hours to drive from Manchester to Burlington one way in the morning?

I do that drive in 45 minutes.... It's possible that it may take longer if you are stuck in a traffic jam (evening commute more than AM, don't know why).

[BriInNH]

Here's my 2 cents. I live in Bedford, NH currently and have lived all over Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I work in Chelmsford, MA currently.

The small towns in NH are quite conservative (Hollis, Hudson, Bedford) so although your family will be jst fine in any of them, you will certainly be the minority.

The commute from SNH varies depending on what time of day you leave. If your husband leaves for work before 7am, traffic should not be a dealbreaker. The commute to Burlington ( provided a few nifty shortcuts through town) should not take over 50 minutes. My own commute to Chelmsford/Billerica is around 35-40 minutes but I am commute against traffic.

I would recommend Nashua and Manchester for your family(if he doesn't mind the longer commute). Despite the scare tactics , these are overall decent cities to live and infact, IMO, nicer cities than the Massachusetts counterparts such as Worcester, Lowell and other comparable ones. Nashua and Manchester in part still have a more rural laid-back feel that Massachusetts simply doesn't have.

However, I agree with gf2020 for the most part. It sounds as though a better solution MAY be to live in Massachusetts, or at least give it a look.

[kontradeltarebels]

You seem knowledgeable about the area.. I have learned now, that its between 5-15 min. to route 3 from hollis points. What about from exit 5 on Rt 3 to the 128 interchange and then Peabody?

What time would one expect backups during each rush? Can you be specific about choke points? Looking at a few maps it would seem that right at the border would be tough and then again at the 128 intersection.

The reason I am asking all this is my wife and I have been trying to develop a strategy as we just recently sold our home and have decided that I need to work closer to my soon-to-be office.

My story:
Born in Fairfield Cty Ct. Raised grade thru high school in Cheshire County. Complete adult life in NYC. I think I now have a very good perspective on how many different people live.

a little over two years ago I moved my very young family [twin 3 yr olds, 9 mo. old] back up to Spofford with the original intent to build on property I had purchased. Having spent 6 months unemployed this past summer, made me acutely aware of my job prospects in that area.

Luckily I landed a very very good job but the co. is based in NYC. I have been splitting time between NH/NYC but thankfully, that is coming to an end and I can soon transfer to the Peabody, MA office. Making even a once a week commute very very long / intolerable from the Keene area.

I would prefer not to get involved in a mad chase to the top like I have seen in many suburbs around NYC and I get the impression that the Bedford/Amherst/Hollis area may be that or becoming that. I know I will lose the relative calm in Keene if we move into that area.. Some questions if any of you have a moment:

I would really like to stay on 'this side' of 93 to be ~ an hour from the keene area.

My impression: [would love to know if they are completely on or false or somewhere in between]

Tremendous yuppie [or wanna-be] explosion due to the high-tech boom in Boston proper. [full disclosure, I'm 41 info-security professional]

Seems like an awful lot of the same cookie cutter went up over the past 5-10 years in the towns I mentioned. Are you hearing about many problems with these homes?

What's the local traffic like on a weekend around here? Is everyone rushing to 101A and the mall areas?

Anyone know of a site that explains MHT landing patterns?

Seems like there's no safe place for taxes anywhere between MHT- NASH - PORT. [True fact that 3 of the 5 tax seasons I owned my house in 03462 zipcode my taxes went down!]

Sorry for the long post, but I stumbled upon the site in my research and figured I'd just give it a whirl to get as many questions answered as possible.