Moving to Southern New Hampshire (Manchester, Nashua: insurance, co-op, house prices)

[Fingersny]

Are there any upscale neighborhoods/towns within 30 minutes of Manchester that have homes on half acre lots instead of the 2+acres I am seeing in towns such as Bedford? We have young kids, so proximity to good public schools is key. Thanks.

[gf2020]

You did not mention a price range, but you might consider homes in the Baboosic Lake area or Souhegan Woods Golf Club area of Amherst. Those houses typically have lot sizes under an acre.

[seamusnh]

Lot sizes in Amherst are 2 acre minimum in most of the town and 5 acres in the northern section of town. There are some developments where each owner has about a half acre and there is common land that gets the development to 2 acres per house overall.

The towns with the best reputations for schools are Amherst, Hollis and Bedford...

[Valerie C]

The short answer is that yes, there are homes on smaller lots available in Amherst and Bedford, but these tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Because so much of New Hampshire is private well/septic, it's important to zone for low density in these rural towns. Some neighborhoods are planned with community wells/septic systems, and this arrangements allows for each home to be on smaller acreage (reducing your tax bill and the amount of time you'll have to spend maintaining your yard) but as seamusNH notes, the balance of the land will be on the common ground. These neighborhoods will typically have association fees, to cover the costs of maintaining the wells/septic, insurance on common land, etc.

Are you committed to being in the greater Nashua area, or would you consider searching east of the Merrimack River in Rockingham County? Towns like Londonderry, Windham, Auburn also have good schools, upscale neighborhoods, and a variety of lot sizes, some well under an acre, but nothing less than half an acre.

[Fingersny]

Thanks for the posts. Prices of homes are not an issue - we are coming from NY suburbs, so the house prices and taxes in NH are about half of what we would pay here. Typically looking for 4BR, 2+ bath and north of 3200 square feet. We are just looking for denser populations than what we have seen thus far.

[lisa g]

Fingersny,

Most NH public schools, especially Bedford's, are radically progressive/postmodern in philosophy, and not traditional. That means emphasis on social/psychological outcomes instead of academic outcomes as most erroneously assume the goal of public school is.

NH has an Outcome Based education system, 'school-to-work' the goal, which sacrifices the rigor of a traditional liberal arts education for demonstration of competencies. Even when curriculum appears to be acceptable, methodology used facilitates inclusion of special ed students to the point that standards are lowered for all in every way and the result is mediocrity.

I should mention that many NH schools have been using books and media without parental notification which is radically and unecessarily negative, shocking and depraved. The common theme throughout the stories and scenes of dysfunction, in combination with psychological methodology, is empowerment of students *against* parental guidance and traditional norms. Bedford, Litchfield and Hollis have been guilty of this. Just the other night the Hollis Co-op School Board and public audience listened while a parent read a passage of a memoir assigned to an English class in which the heroine learns that she should simply change her negative attitude about the incest she was complaining about. The assertion of the text was that once she considers it 'normal' she will no longer have a problem. One of our state reps communicated his disgust to the school board publicly at the meeting because he felt it was highly disrespectful of women, in addition to the text unecessarily containing descriptions of graphic dysfunctional sexual scenes. The school in question broke a media policy in assigning the book for the class, this is not a censorship issue, simply an issue created by a school not following rules parents agree upon when enrolling their children.

Again, 'outcome' is social/psych, and students in many NH public districts, like Hollis for example, take surveys and provide feedback to schools on their personal values preferences or positive - negative reactions to images online to provide the guidance dept. with a baseline on values for grading purposes and evaluations of outcomes.

All NH public school students have unique pupil identifiers (UPI's). There is a database to track student progress, changes in attitudes and personal values (which affect grades - the true academic nature of grades varies from district to district depending on how radically social/psych the district is).

[gf2020]

lisa g, what does your post have to do with finding a house on a smaller lot?

[motoracer51]

Originally Posted by gf2020

lisa g, what does your post have to do with finding a house on a smaller lot?

Well, the OP mentioned being close to "good" public schools,and she was just expressing how the traditional good education has moved to a more progressive non traditional one.

I thought the post was informative. Perhaps you should ask to be a mod?

[lisa g]

Originally Posted by Fingersny

Are there any upscale neighborhoods/towns within 30 minutes of Manchester that have homes on half acre lots instead of the 2+acres I am seeing in towns such as Bedford? We have young kids, so proximity to good public schools is key. Thanks.

Hi gf,
My post was not in response to the request for info on upscale neighborhoods/towns offering homes on half acre lots within 30 minutes of Manchester. It was in response to the other criteria described as key, or priority; proximity to good public schools. I hope this helps.