Amherst/Hollis vs Seacoast - Where to Live? (Manchester, Nashua: for sale, house prices)

[NH2008]

PS I'd welcome feedback from anyone and everyone who knows these areas well - noy just residents! Thanks.

[imagine]

I love living here. The Seacoast is easily the best place to live with that New England-style. Portsmouth is more like a small city in the middle of the country. Towns like Rye, Stratham, Eliot, Durham, Greenland, York.. are all very rural and family friendly. The area has been rated consistently as one of the safest metropolitan areas in America.

Some have started to complain about everything becoming very \\\"upscale\\\" around Portsmouth. Real estate prices have boomed, and it seems like a lot of of lower income people are moving inland. Whichever way you take this scenario, the economy is still excellent. I wouldn\\\'t hesitate saying that we get city salaries for rural living.

New Castle-most expensive, crowded. little open space, exclusive island, great location

Rye-lots of space, expensive, great beaches, lots of Mercede benz

Stratham-very nice town, lots of traffic on 33, large lots, really nice homes, borders the great bay

Newmarket-lots of condo and apts., old mill town, borders great bay, less expensive

North Hampton-mix of really nice homes and middle class, all commercial development is limited to route 1

Hampton- nice town, mix of renters and owners, hampton beach isn\\\'t so nice, close to Mass.

Dover-nice city, mix of incomes, very safe, 10 min for portsmouth, lots of congestion on route 16

Kittery-small town, outlet shoping, naval ship yard, lots of middle income homes,across the bridge from Portsmouth

York-historic, great schools, lots of beaches, beautiful, open space, lots of tourists in the summer

Exeter-great downtown, PEA, nice homes, closer to manchester, families

I\'m not sure if politics matter to you but these would be my choices..

Liberal
1. Ogunquit
2. Kittery
3. Dover
4. Portsmouth

Conservative
1. New Castle
2. Rye
3. York
4. Stratham

[imagine]

I put Kittery and Ogunquit higher than Portsmouth because they\'re both are in Maine with higher taxes.

[CityGirl52]

I wanted to give you a little more explanation of the town of Hampton. It's got the village district and the beach district, (Hampton Beach). North Beach, which is north of Hampton Beach and past Rocky Bend is also a part of the town of Hampton. The village district of Hampton which is about a mile over from the Hampton beach area of the town, yet we're all ONE town, if you know what I mean, when it comes right down to it. The village district has a mixture of stunning older new englanders that were and are part of the landscape of New England. Then theres some newer capes and a lot of raised ranches and single floor ranches on some of the side roads, but also what's in Hampton now more and more are the newer upscale developments added to this mix, which has the mega-homes as we call them around here, I'm sure you know what those are. Just to give you an idea of what they're like? BMW's, Volvo's and Mercedes swing out of those driveways early in the morning on their way to their trains and buses or in to downtown Portsmouth or Boston! Some of the newer homes are actually so so big that they don't have furniture in them and when carpenters, electricians or plumbers are called in to them, to do any type of work on them? There voices will echo through these houses because of being so empty!!! True story....! A huge amount of them are being bought by singles and couples with no kids.

Hampton Beach was always for families and kids through the many many years. When my mother, who is in her 80's was a kid, she went to Hampton Beach and there were all magnificient Victorian Inns and restaurants all along the boardwalk with mega-huge porches with many many rocking chairs on them being used! Just magnificiently built back then and so charming and quaint. So you can imagine what the change is doing to THAT generation when they see Hampton Beach now!! When you drive through the beach area lately though, you'll definitely see the newer upscale condo developments quite a bit on a lot of the side streets, as well as Ocean Boulevard and Ashworth Avenue. Well this is actually a GOOD thing because they're safer to be in and they're going to bring a caliber of people that will take care of where they are on vacation. The summer crowds have gone home as of last night when the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival ended last night. NOW is the time that all of us along the seacoast that live here, LOVE driving through the beach district! It's awesome when it's nice and quiet for the rest of the winter months, around here. In fact? It's like a breath of fresh air, being able to drive through the beach area and not be stuck in traffic! Now that it's over, we can get ourselves over to Brown's in Seabrook for a yummy lobster roll and for our steamers! Unfortunately there's just a different breed of kids and summer guests that go to Hampton Beach in the summer months now. The rest of mankind can't take looking at them or being around them too much, so therefore, these particular people have Hampton Beach all to themselves for a few months in the summer. Then, right after the seafood festival? The rest of us get it back when this crowd leaves for the season! In the meantime in Hampton, there's a "Master Plan" that the town selectmen and town fathers came up with several years ago now and so far they seem to think it's going to take a good 10 years more to evolve. Well, you can start to see these changes at the beach a little at a time, believe it or not. One of the biggest issues of course, and it's the bottom line with it all at Hampton Beach is the issue of "cleaning it up". Well, when you drive through there now? As opposed to several years ago, you can definitely see the change, slowly but surely you can actually see this change every one wants. Those newer upscale condos look awesome as opposed to what was there before. The older, shabby rundown, unsafe cottage type property from the 40's and 50's? Those days are over for quite a lot of them. No, not ALL of them, some of them, because there's many many homes that are winterized over there now or cute summer property at the beach, that's kept up beautifully. There's definitely some there, that are in rough rough shape and every one knows it. They look extremely bad that they reek of poverty on the outside, when you drive by them, they're pretty bad and that's what they're trying to eliminate or at least they're trying to make this type of owner "clean it up" a little, you know plant a pretty flower, wash the windows, run up to Home Depot but do something with it, subtly it's happening, but there's still issues going on that need to be addressed, big time!!!! I'm sure you get my drift!

One of the goals of the "Master Plan" is to have brick sidewalks and new lighting and a completely different "look" about the "front" of Hampton Beach where the shops are now. They have the endless "t-shirts and unimportant miscellaneous "junk", as well as, they would like them to have a much better "caliber" of shops and restaurants, such as what Ogunquit,Kennebunkport, Maine has??? I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

If you do decide to move to the lovely seacoast area and if you wonder what's going on with the "beach" and to the "town of Hampton?" That's what the main issue is around here these days. If your kids are really young right now? They will hopefully see a big change in the "landscape" and with the "look" of Hampton Beach and hopefully it's when they are not too much older than they are now! We're all keeping our fingers crossed for this to take place for all the future generations and for the young ones that are here now.

In the last few years a brand spanking new (upscale, cooler!!!!) Police Station was built in Hampton and we got to tour it when it first opened. Let me tell you, it's about time that mega-palace was finally built for those guys because they desperately needed it!!! The old decrepit building the police were in before? It was without a doubt, an absolute disgrace that they had to work under those conditions. HOW it went on for that many years is beyond my comprehension. The new complex now is over at the beach instead of in the town, because it's needed much more at the beach with all the yahoo's they get in the summer months partying up a storm. It's located at 100 Brown Avenue off of Ashworth Avenue.

Winnacunnet Regional High School in Hampton has a new addition and that's about time for them as well! I'll tell you something, my younger sisters went to that school (way back in the 80's) and they went out of their minds there because it was extremely over crowded THEN, so you can imagine what it was like before this addition was built! Neither of my sisters wanted there own kids going to that school years later, so they put them all in private schools, that's how bad the school was. Well, if you have younger children and move to this area? You actually lucked out because the high school needed this addition (for years!!) and they finally passed it, built it and the high schoolers are in there as I speak right now, other than that the school itself and the teachers in it? Are wonderful and there's a lot of scholarships being offered to students at that school. A huge amount go on to wonderful colleges all around New England and the country. Not just little tiny campus colleges either! We see a few here and there going to the ivy league schools, there's real serious students with incredible goals that live around here, you'll be happy to know!

You'll really enjoy living on the seacoast. It doesn't matter what town you live in either. They are all unique towns in their own way. You'll love the convenience of living in any one of the various towns people have listed here, trust me! I have family in 3 different towns.

I believe the seacoast was rated #1 for places to live for families. It's definitely #1 in my book and I'm from the City of Boston originally. It takes a good 2 years to get used to this lifestyle "up here" but once you do? You won't want to live any where else.
I know of a family right now that moved out of New England about 2 years ago and they just moved back again to the seacoast, to the same road they were on before, because they missed it here! So that's something positive to remember about it here!

I wanted you to get some facts on the town of Hampton from a resident like me but here's also something interesting for you to read from the HamptonPD site:

Hampton is a beach resort community. Located on the beautiful New Hampshire seacoast. Our department is staffed with 34 full-time and 70 part-time sworn officers. They are supported by 9 civilian employees.
We use a variety of patrol methods and techniques to handle the dramatic increase in our daily population. Our Mission:

* Maintain Peace and Order
* Preventing and Solving Crime
* Fostering Partnerships with the Community

Links Of Interest in the Town of Hampton:
* Town of Hampton Web Site
* Town of Hampton Lane Memorial Library
* Town of Hampton Cable Channel 22
* Hampton Area Weather

[Valerie C]

CityGirl, I enjoyed reading your post very much. It's kind of funny that now the "tourists" go home after the seafood festival. Back when the seafood festival first started, it was great. Everyone had already gone home, it was something for the locals to enjoy. Not a bunch of tents with "crafts" mostly made in china and a gobs of overpriced, poorly cooked "carnival" food. We went for the first 2 or 3 years, and enjoyed small portions of the actual type of food that was served in the various resturants. Like everything else, it's become an "attraction". Can't even imagine how it was for people there this weekend, 90 degrees and parking lot shut down for the festival. Well I guess that's what a festival is all about anyway...

Hampton Beach has come downhill, so I imagine it's good that they are cleaning it up. Many areas have become Salisbury II except without the honky tonk bars like the Kon Tiki, The Sidewalk and of course the Frolics. Those, along with the amusement park area(s), games of chance, "penny" arcades" and even the "new" (NOT) Pavillion... All gone now, and many many condo developments moving in to take over. Yes, I imagine it's better, but still, something has been lost... Eating beach pizza from Cristy's or Tripoli Pizza just isn't the same now. It is my hope that Hampton Beach doesn't go too far in turning into an "upscale area" and make it inaccessable to those with families, or regular people who just can't keep up with with the mercades, lexus, bmw drivers. Heaven forbid that Browns or Marky's across the street turns into places that you need to get dresses up or make reservations for...

In keeping this post on topic, and not just reminiscing... think about settling in an area that isn't undergoing drastic changes. What you buy into may be very different than what you'll be living in a few short years....

[NH2008]

Thank you - so helpful to hear and great food for thought. I did go through Hampton, Rye, Exeter, New Castle, etc with a realtor and then go back with my mom and then AGAIN with my husband and I just loved everything. Our realtor lived in Exeter and really believed in that school district so we'd probably choose to live there or in New Castle (if we could find something we could afford, just because it was so beautiful!) We have had our house in NH my entire life but had never been anywhere on the seacoast except Portsmouth proper and none of us could believe how beautiful New Castle and - I want to say Ocean Drive? - were!

Does anyone know how real estate prices on the seacoast compare to prices in Hollis/Bedford? I toured houses in both areas, but everything I saw on the seacoast was a fixer-upper so I couldn't do an apples to apples comparison.

Thanks!

[Valerie C]

NH2008, I would suggest that since you are hooked up with a Realtor, in addition to asking here, ask them to do cost comparisons, square footage costs, etc based on your "wants and needs list". As a Buyer's Agent, this part of the service that they provide. The 'better' seacoast areas will *usually* have a higher cost per s/f because of location, location, location.

[NH2008]

Valerie -

We are looking for an old house (100 years+) and the realtors I've spoken with basically said each was unique and they couldn't do even a ballpark price per sq ft. Does that sound right? Of course the condition varies and some are prettier or more updated than others, but should it be impossible to guesstimate?

[Valerie C]

Impossible? Of course not... it's easy enough to figure the S/F price: (house price divided by finished square footage) So a $200,000 home with 2000 s/f = $200,000 / 2000 s/f = $100 s/f. The price per s/f should go up and down depending on location, condition, updates, etc. Remember that land values probably factor here as well (land itself is HIGH at the seacoast!)

There's an old adage to remember here: buy the worst house in the best neighborhood. It still applies today...

Remember that market value has very little to do with how much someone paid for a house 5, 10 or 25 years ago. Market value is what a ready, willing, and able Buyer will pay for it (or what the bank says it's worth )

You mention Realtors (multiple). Are you working with Seller's agents, or using Realtors based on their locale?

[NH2008]

We haven't signed with anyone. We just got the driving and house tour from realtors in each area we're considering - Seacoast, Hollis, Peterborough. The housing prices were all over the place, but that could be because we saw everything from total fixer-uppers to mint condition houses. Also, in every case the prices had been set by the owners, so a lot of times the realtors told me, "this isn't what it's going to sell for!" One of the houses had been on the market over a year. Also, since we've never owned a house before it's really hard for me to know (when looking at a fixer-upper) what it would really cost to make it livable.