Keene and Suburbs (Swanzey, Marlborough, Westmoreland: for sale, real estate, insurance)

[lmdotes]

Hello,
We are relocating from Virginia to Keene in early August. I've posted before that we were considering the area, and my husband was offered a position with Keene HS. We are very excited about what will be our new hometown. I visited a few weeks ago and was taken with the small town feel. It seems like a nice family/college town. People are not kidding about the traffic! There have to be more cars on the road per capita on Sundays than many a big city

We are in the midst of our house search and need some advice. Keene is on our list of locations, but we need to expand a bit to add to homes on the market we can look at. The top things for us are 1) schools for our two kids (one in elem school right now), and 2) accessibility to Keene and shopping (really don't want more than a 10-15 minute jog into town), and 3) housing affordability and resale value.

I looked at a few houses in Swanzey and thought the area was pretty, but I'm concerned about schools there. I've been reading about problems with Monadnock jr/sr high and how housing resale may be affected by them being on probation. Anyone from Swanzey out there who can shed some light?

The other area I came across was Marlborough, but if I remember correctly, they have voted three times for new elem school and three times voted down recently. Any thoughts on Marlborough? What is the town like?

I've also looked online at houses in Westmoreland, but our realtor said not much goes on the market there, and I also think we probably can't afford out there (our budget is around $215K to $240K).

Any advice on these towns or other towns you would recommend would be much appreciated!!

[WannaComeHome]

Originally Posted by lmdotes

We are in the midst of our house search and need some advice. Keene is on our list of locations, but we need to expand a bit to add to homes on the market we can look at. The top things for us are 1) schools for our two kids (one in elem school right now), and 2) accessibility to Keene and shopping (really don't want more than a 10-15 minute jog into town), and 3) housing affordability and resale value.

Any advice on these towns or other towns you would recommend would be much appreciated!!

Have you looked at Surry, Gilsum or Sullivan? I don't know much about the Keene 'burbs, but those are the other ones surrounding it. If you were willing to be a touch out farther, Dublin and harrisvill are supposed to be nice.

[jennifer_dong1980]

my mother-in-law isa a working in coldwell bank real estate company in keene,i guess she knows all the houses source and the enviroment around keene ,surry and gilsum!if you like ,i can give you her email add.

[boynoelms]

Gilsum, Surry and Sullivan all go to Monadnock. This school is presently on probation for accreditation status. Not to mention the fact that your kids will spend about an hour and a half minimum on the bus to school each day. Taxes are lower than Keene, but services are non-existent. Nice places to live if you are childless.

The smaller suburbs (!) of Keene can be kind of clique-ish. Newcomers are looked at with a bit of suspicion (how many kids do they have? Any special-ed problems?)

I do love the area--I've been up here 17 years.

[Tarastomsgirl]

well I def thinky you can find a house in Keene for your budget.. West Keene is beautiful and its easy to get to down town in 10-15 mins. As far as schools for elementary my husbands been told by the police officers he works with who's kids are in Elem. that Fulton Elementary is the best one. Try looking with the Massiello Group on their website for houses. I see them a lot around town , lots of houses for sale. I saw a very nice house just outside of downtown Keene by Robin Hood Park for $181,000 so affordability is out there.

[nicolem]

Congrats. I really like the Keene area and think you will enjoy it. I just have one word of caution. The area was hit with some really bad floods in October 2005 so you might want to do a little research about this.

Good luck,

Nicole

[Torrey]

Originally Posted by nicolem

Congrats. I really like the Keene area and think you will enjoy it. I just have one word of caution. The area was hit with some really bad floods in October 2005 so you might want to do a little research about this.

Good luck,

Nicole

My take on that is how often does it flood there? I cannot believe it would be often, if ever again. You can almost BANK on Louisiana getting flooded out over and over, but a place like Keene??? What do flood statistics show? There are charts on that sort of thing for all regions you know.

[countrylv22]

HELLO TORREY!

I was also wondering about the FLOODS because if I remember correctly, I read somewhere that Keene was flooded in October of 2005 and again in March of 2006 .....
And I also read that the local baseball team are called the SWAMP BATS ha ha ha !! ....
That leads me to believe that they do get quite a bit of floods maybe I am wrong...maybe someone from Keene could chime in...
I also noticed that Keene as well as the rest of the state are very GREEN(that is POSITIVE/they do not lack RAIN), and you hear several people complaning about too much rain, 'mud season', too many floods.... I am just wondering why???
Is there something wrong with the draining system in place, or what??? Or is it just TOO much rain???
The pictures I saw of Keene during their last flood, the people were in boats (it looked a bit like New Orleans), a bit scary the cars were almost covered with water...
So, I am also wondering about the FLOODS in KEENE, as well as the rest of the state....
And what tends to be the rainy season, from what month to what month??
Anyway, I believe the entire state of NH is quite beautiful!
And the people are very friendly!
So I am just wondering about FLOODS , and why???
Thank you,
Take care,
Countrylv22

Originally Posted by Torrey

My take on that is how often does it flood there? I cannot believe it would be often, if ever again. You can almost BANK on Louisiana getting flooded out over and over, but a place like Keene??? What do flood statistics show? There are charts on that sort of thing for all regions you know.

[Torrey]

Well there have to be some sort of flood statistics. I would call a local insurance agency and ask if they have any statistics on it. I am sure there are other places to check with as well. I am interested of course in this information as I plan on moving to the area in about 3 years or so. In about 1 year, I plan to take a trip to the area to scout around to see what is there, and what the population is like. I hope flooding isn't a regular occurance. If so, maybe their drainage is inadequate?

[Tarastomsgirl]

okay I live in Keene, although I was not here in the Oct flood my husband lived up here in March and said there were no floods, at least that he can remember. Anywhere you live there is going to be a risk of flood, or hurricane, or drought. Hell I lived in south florida and I can remember being in a boat going down my street yearly from excessive rain or hurricanes. We had snakes and gators swimmin in our pool cause the water from the canal came right up to it. Thank god we don't have that problem up here. As far as rain I don't really feel that it rains a lot, perhaps my idea of rain could be a bit skewed because I lived pretty close to the Everlgades so we got rain every day but I would say rain is average here. BUT the charm and the sheer greatness of Keene seems to outweight anything mother nature has IMO. Floods, blizzards, drought etc are out of our control, you can't control it so don't base your whole life on it, if that was the fact of the matter nobody would live in Alaska, or Canada or Arizona or anywhere cause there is always going to be some kind of incident that will paralize the city for a while until the mess can be cleaned up.