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My wife and I have the opportunity to decide where in the USA we will live next and we are seriously considering southern NH. As part of the decision-making process, we have closely followed the NH forum (and taken in information on many NH cities on city-data.com) in the last few months and are very grateful to have learned so much without ever setting foot in NH.
My wife and I are now visiting southern NH to get a first-hand impression of the neighborhoods. In the few days we have been here, we have visited a few residential and commercial neighborhoods, and have also taken advantage of 'Open House' opportunities to see the inside of a few NH homes (thus far in Salem, Atkinson, Derry, and Londonderry). We are using NNEREN and Zillow to find info on available houses.
At this time, we feel we should talk to a professional Realtor. Recommendations on candidate realtors are welcome.
Thanks again to everyone who contributes to this forum.
PS Valerie C: I have found your posts quite informative and see that you are a realtor. My wife and I would love to talk/meet if you are interested.
I contacted ValerieC to let her know about your post so she could get back to you. She doesn't get here terribly often, but said she'd try to catch up with you asap!
SMUR, I would be happy to help you with identifying a town & neighborhood that might best fit your needs. As a licensed agent and Realtor, I can't break the Terms of Service by posting my email address or website url, but if you click on my name above, you're welcome to send a message directly to me here at the forum, or email if that is better for you. Hope you're enjoying your visit to NH thus far
Thanks for letting me know about SMUR's request, Wanna. I appreciate it
WannaComeHome: Thank you for getting ValerieC's attention.
seamusnh: No schools are not a concern. My wife and I are both in Hi-Tech and have the opportunity to work out of home, but we do like to be able to commute (at least 1-2 days a week) to work, should we have to get new jobs. Thanks for the suggestions on towns.
ValerieC: Thanks for the interest. I will send you a direct message or e-mail.
You're both in hi-tech? That's a little vague. You mean IT? Can you be a little more specific? I am in IT myself and can tell you that IT jobs in NH with NH based companies tend to be few and far between. The IT market in NH is much more SMB than Enterprise. Your best bet would be w/ companies in either Manchester or Portsmouth though. Now if you said you wanted to move to MA that would be a different story. There is so much more opportunity as far as the hi-tech/IT job market. If you and the wife moved there you'd really be sitting in butter.
What did you think of the towns you listed that you've already visited? I grew up in Salem. It's gotten to be a dump though. Derry? Nice if you like high taxes. Atkinson, taxes are low and town is nice but it's a drive to get to the highway.
Call me captain obvious but choosing a new city or town in which to live is a highly subjective experience. You'll have to give us a little more info on your likes/dislikes and desires for us to make proper recommendations.
You're both in hi-tech? That's a little vague. You mean IT? ... IT jobs in NH with NH based companies tend to be few and far between. The IT market in NH is much more SMB than Enterprise. Your best bet would be w/ companies in either Manchester or Portsmouth though. Now if you said you wanted to move to MA that would be a different story. ...
What did you think of the towns you listed that you've already visited? ...
By the way, where are you moving from?
db77: My wife and I are both indeed in IT. Thanks for mentioning the general SMB nature of IT in NH. That was our feeling as well.
We are returning to the US after overseas assignment. Prior to that, we lived on the west coast. At this time, my wife and I both have jobs elsewhere that let us telecommute. We do pay income-tax to elsewhere , but we are happy to try NH living while we are able to. Of course, things can change and we might need to find new jobs. In that sense, knowing that Manchester and Portsmouth tend to have more IT jobs is helpful.
We definitely want to avoid living in MA. When we are pushed to move to MA, we will probably seriously consider moving to CA. At least that devil offers more
We have formed no opinion of the towns we have visited, largely because we don't know enough first-hand about these parts. However, as others have observed on this forum before, Salem and Nashua do have not-so-desirable parts. The same is probably true for Manchester. Other towns appear considerably smaller and more to our liking, but access to highways and groceries might be harder.
Wherever we end up living, we need:
* Reliable Internet connection
* Reliable cell-phone coverage
* Quiet, safe, clean, tolerant neighborhood (most NH towns appear to qualify)
We like:
* Reasonably easy access to groceries. We can manage to shop once a week or twice in ten days or so
* Decent roads and reasonably easy access to highways.
* Schools are not a factor, but a good school system is healthy for any community. So, we don't mind paying a bit for schooling others' kids. After all, we benefited from good schools.
* Not too far from Boston's Logan Airport, because we tend to travel 2-4 times a year; mostly international.
We have looked at the historic tax rates for southern NH towns and have shortlisted some towns. These towns are generally bound by Brookline on the West; Bedford on the North; Plaistow on the East. Given this large area (~20 towns), we are thinking of looking at houses in towns with easier access to Route 3 and 93. In the meanwhile, we think we should rent something short term.
This is everything that comes to mind right now. Again, I am thankful for these interactions, and would love to get tips/suggestions/recommendations and will be happy to answer questions.
As for the IT jobs. Most of what you will see in NH would be the SMB market. Lots of in house IT roles for companies whose core business function is something other than IT. These roles tend to be somewhat of you being the IT jack of all trades person or member of small IT team for the company. The pay varies depending upon the company you get in with but there is the definite possibility of making a decent living if you fall in with the right one. There are also a lot of small IT Managed Services companies that service the SMB market to smaller Enterprise clients. These types of companies in NH typically do not pay as well as you'd expect to find with a large company but they do have that more intimate feel to them if that's important to you. There are also a handful of ISPs in NH, mostly in the Manchester area. I work for one of them. I don't want to say that there is no opportunity to work in an enterprise environment in NH. It's just that it's very limited when comparing to MA. There is always the possibility of living in southern NH and commuting to MA. I wouldn't do it but many others do.
As far as the things you described as needing. Most towns in southeast NH would fit the bill as far as grocery stores being close by, and reliable cell phone and internet coverage. If you found a town you really liked but did not get good cell coverage you could easily by an antennna system for a few hundred dollars and being in IT hook it up yourself.
If you're dead set against living or commuting to MA but rather insist on finding a job in NH I would recommend looking for a home somewhere in the Seacost or along route 101 between Portsmouth and Manchester. There a lot of nice little towns along this route, just to name a few: Auburn, Chester, Candia, Brentwood, Epping, Exeter, Kingston, Stratham, Hampton Falls. You may find that you'd rather live off I93. There are a lot of nice towns to be looked into there too but I wouldn't go north of Concord because then you're getting into no man's land as far as jobs are concerned.
Some people may recommend Nashua. My personal opinion? I'd avoid Nashua and the surrounding towns like the plague. Nashua is spread out yet very crowded with lots of traffic. No matter where you're coming from and going to in Nashua it always seems to take forever.
If you do like the more urban areas I would recommend Portsmouth. It is by far the nicest city in NH with the most to offer. Best restaurants, best nightlife, most culture, near the beaches, near I95.
Well that's my two cents. Enjoy your time here and by all means keep us posted and let us know what you think.
My wife and I have rented an apartment in Manchester (a bit outside the city for clean and quiet living). We think renting in Manchester affords us the following benefits:
* Make it easier to scout the area between Manchester and Portsmouth for potential homes. (Thanks db77 for the pointer to this stretch). It also makes it easier to scout the area West of Rte 3.
* It lets us experience winter at a location that gets a bit more snow than Nashua/Salem. Apartment-living doesn't quite provide the winter experience as living in a home, but we think we have found something that represents the minimum winter rigor we need to tolerate.
* It saves us valuable rent money (~$50-$100) compared to renting in Nashu/Salem region.
Over the last week, we have also driven around houses in several neighborhoods based on information at NNEREN and Zillow. We have thus far covered: Derry, Windham, Pelham, Salem, Atkinson, Plaistow, Hampstead, Kingston, East Kingston, and Newton. We haven't looked at all the houses in our price range, but we have driven by enough representative houses to see if we might find something appealing (externally) in our price range. The answer seems to be Yes for these cities.
We have also driven by/through/around the towns of Auburn, Chester, and Sandown, but we haven't scouted particular properties. So, next, we like to scout homes in these cities as well as houses in Londonderry and Litchfield. We are somewhat unsure of being as far as Exeter and Portsmouth. (Also, Portsmouth seems to be quite expensive.) Scouting cities west of Rte 3 has lower priority.
Our biggest priority now is to buy a car that works for NH living. No matter where we live, the car has to help with grocery shopping (~3 miles to store; twice in 10 days); and an occasional drive to Nashua/Boston (~monthly Costco visit to Nashua). In the short term, the car needs to help us scout neighborhoods, and medium-term it needs to help us live in a home we purchase. We don't expect to live in areas that are very difficult due to snow, but we pragmatically assume that at least some stretches of roads will need careful navigation in snow.
Our problem is, as good drivers as we are, we are not at all knowledgeable about buying cars. We have owned three used cars in the past, and we bought all of them from friends and people we implicitly trust. None of these cars caused us any grief after we bought them. However, being new to NH and not having a single friend/acquaintance, we feel very lost: We need a car quickly (to replace the rental) but we don't want to lose hard-earned money on a lemon. (We hear NH doesn't have lemon laws.)
I assume the rules of these forums do not allow advertisements/promotions of particular businesses/individuals, but I will be grateful if any of you can introduce me to a trusted source to buy/inspect a car. I will make sure direct messages are enabled on my CD account.
I also welcome any feedback/comments/suggestions/questions/concerns on any other aspect of my post.
So SMUR. What do you think of the towns you have seen so far? Anything you particularly liked or didn't like? You leaning toward any town in particular?
As far as the car stuff goes. Don't know what type of car you like but my family has always had very good luck with Toyota Rav 4's and Honda CRVs. Both are excellent cars that give you the 4WD you will need for New Enlgand weathers plus the cargo space for grocery shopping and other errands where space is needed without having to spend a fortune on gas.
While I guess I can't come out and recommend a specific dealer by name I would look at a dealership In Bow that begins with a G and has both Honda and Toyota. They are pretty reputable.
Oh and just some general car buying advice. Car dealerships have quotas for their salespeople that must be met. If you go car shopping on a Monday or Tuesday you are much, much more likely to get a better deal because the number of people shopping for a car on a Monday or Tuesday is much lower than it is on a Saturday or a Sunday so the salespeople will be more desperate to close a deal on those days whereas on the weekend they are getting a steady stream of people coming in all day long.
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, but we are happy to try NH living while we are able to. Of course, things can change and we might need to find new jobs. In that sense, knowing that Manchester and Portsmouth tend to have more IT jobs is helpful.
