Sorry--I've been away on vaca for the last week or so, and never got back tho this thread
I don't know if anyone has answered your questions, Lou11669, but I'll give it a shot. The 2012 tax rate for Hollis is 21.23 per thousand (the 2013 rate won't come out until a little later in the year, between now and the 2nd tax bill in November/December). That breaks down as follows:
Town: 5.80, Local Education: 12.04, State Education: 2.32, County: 1.07
Bedford's tax rate is 20.32, and breaks down as follows:
Town: 4.35, Local Education: 12.53, State Education: 2.30, County: 1.14
Amherst's tax rate is somewhat higher, at 26.28 per thousand:
Town: 4.90, Local Education: 17.60, State Education: 2.62, County: 1.16
The 'average' property tax bill in Hollis, Bedford or Amherst is likely to come in somewhere in the 9-12k range. This would be a 'newer' 3000+ square foot home on 1-3 acres (or more). You can find smaller lot sizes in Bedford, which has areas that are much more densely populated then either Amherst or Hollis. (Bedford also has neighborhoods with public water/public sewer natural gas). All 3 towns are consistently ranked in the top 15 towns both in property values & per capita income. It's worth noting that property values are significantly higher than say.... Derry. With one of the state's highest property tax rates ($30.48 per thousand, with 16.35 going toward local edu) the tax bills will actually be somewhat lower (8-10k) due to lower property values in that town.
The following document will give you a good idea on how much the various towns are spending on schools, municipal, etc. Take a look for yourself:
http://www.revenue.nh.gov/munc_prop/...RateReport.pdf
The town of Hollis does not offer curbside pickup. You can arrange for a private hauler to take away your trash, or you can deliver it to the transfer station (ie: dump). Hollis does not have any public water/public sewer--private well/private septic only. I don't know if Hollis has full day K-program, but can tell you that grades 7-12, students are in the Hollis/Brookline Co-op. And yes, there are buses
Many towns come to mind when reading your final wish: to find the town that comes together: you may want to add Londonderry, Hampstead, Chester and Auburn to your list of considerations. Auburn & Chester are more rural (woods, vs the fields and farms of Hollis and Bedford). Their HS students attend Pinkerton Academy, and I know that the elementary and middle schools of both towns preps the kids well for HS. Just a quick example off the top of my head for local festivals in Derry & Londonderry (since they are my backyard): Londonderry has a great Old Home Day celebration (4 days of activities on the town green, including kids night, senior night/supper/orchestra, fireworks & concert, ,Summertime Concerts on the Common, and several art festivals through the year. Derry has DerryFest, Frost Fest (winter carnival) plus a great summer concert series. Most towns in the area have similar events going on, and I can send you a list of the various festivals throughout the year, if that would be helpful for you...
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Originally Posted by Lou11669
riddei, Great information on Hollis. It sounds like somewhere the kids could really enjoy growing up with all that acreage. If you have any pictures of Hollis, I would gladly view them. I can only imagine the view outside your window with that much land. A few people mentioned high property taxes, if you don't mind could you give me an idea on property taxes in Hollis? Put it this way, we already pay $10,000 a year total for our quarter acre our house sits on and also the tiny piece of land our condo sits on that we rent out, both in Suffolk County, LI. I am glad you are impressed with the school so far. Does the Hollis school district have school buses? What about a full day kindergarten program? What about garbage disposal?
Valerie C, Thank you also for the valuable information. I would take the better schools over the walkable town for sure, especially is such towns would be in driving distance. My children are still little, with one of them about to start kindergarten so in terms of what is important to us in terms of music or sports etc, its hard to say at this point. To me a good school district performs well in test scores but more than that, a good support system is provided for children and parents, a community feel is fostered, the turnover of teachers is low, the whole child is taught and they are not taught only to be good test-takers. I see you are a real estate agent. Can you give me an idea of property taxes for a larger home with 4/5 bedrooms on around 2-3 acres of land in Hollis as compared with Amherst and Bedford for example. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. Like I said, We hope to visit the area later in the year and getting down to two or three towns to visit would be really helpful.
What we are really looking for is a good community feel...we are looking for more space/land/fresh air but we do not want to isolate ourselves. The walkable town thing is not so much wanting to literally walk around a town every weekend but yearning for a place where the community comes together. Somewhere that perhaps holds annual community fairs/parades on holidays. The true All-American kind of experience. If that exists!
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